The Place Where Light Reaches
by Darkrealmist v.2
Summary: After an accident, Hikari Raito and his NetNavi partner Trill find themselves reliving the cherished tale of his parents' love. [Animeverse. Established Netto x Tohru] [COMPLETE]
1. Chapter 1

The Place Where Light Reaches

Author's Note: After a long absence, I'm reviving this mega-fic, which I never uploaded years ago and which was deleted, so I'm starting again from scratch. The original plot drew on everything from the anime up to _EXE 4_ of the games, while here I will be drawing from the entire series, now that the series has ended. Enjoy the story and R&R.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to or of the Rockman EXE series.

Pairing: Established Netto x Tohru, others in future chapters.

Summary:

After an accident, Hikari Raito and his NetNavi partner Trill find themselves reliving the cherished tale of his parents' love.

* * *

Chapter 1

Six-year-old Hikari Raito stood on the tips of his toes as high as he could reach, just a little more than halfway below the sink with potato peeler in hand. He rotated the vegetable in his left palm while applying the peeler with his right, leaving awkwardly carved ribbons on the floor. He stared diligently at his potato as he worked, glancing over at his father every few seconds, and silently panicking when he saw how perfectly rounded his father's potato was by comparison.

Hikawa Tohru noticed his son's distressed expression. He dropped his last potato into the basket with the rest of the veggies in the sink, moved the tap aside and rinsed his hands. After a quick pat down on a towel, he turned to Raito and ruffled the boy's strawberry-red hair. Smiling, he offered simply, "You did good, champ."

"But Otosan's is much better." Raito pointed to his own, which still bore sizeable slivers of brown atop the yellow core.

"I think it's perfect. Wouldn't you say, Netto?" Tohru called to the older one who sat tapping away at his laptop across the room.

Netto stopped typing, and allowed his computer to continue running its calculations independently in the background. He absentmindedly adjusted the worn blue bandana around his neck so it rested more comfortably against the large collar of his sleeveless orange sweatshirt, and flashed a big grin his son's way upon seeing the results of the boy's labour. The tiny hologram of Rockman that hovered above Netto's shoulder matched his operator's toothy expression.

"It's amazing kiddo! Papa's so proud of you!"

"Really?" Raito's eyes instantly lit up. With a burst of enthusiasm, he presented the vegetable to Tohru, who deposited it in the basket alongside its finished brethren.

Tohru lifted Raito up from behind so his son could wash up, before setting him back down and pulling something out from his back pocket.

"Now that you've helped out, you can play with Trill until it's time for dinner."

"Thank you, Otosan!" Raito took his PET from his father and flipped it open to reveal his giddy child Navi pressed up against and making funny faces into the glass. Lord knows how long he had been doing that until his operator came to collect him.

"Ahahahaha!" Trill laughed his trademark infectious laugh. "Raito, let's play!"

Raito bolted from the kitchen with his PET in tow, while Tohru wrapped up with the potatoes, cleaning and transferring them from the basket into a pot on the stove. Replacing the pot cover, he left them to boil, and then took a seat next to Netto at the table.

Tohru leaned into Netto's collarbone, examining the glut of text and images emitted from the laptop. Netto had pages of scanned notes belonging to the elder Dr. Hikari – Netto's father, Yuichiro – that is, splashed across every available inch of his screen. Rockman was rifling through the notes at an astounding speed, searching for something, while Netto was taking in all the information being regurgitated at him.

"Are these for a case?" the paler one asked.

After years of marriage, Netto was well accustomed to Tohru's probing. In the early days, Tohru's inquisitiveness and tendency to ramble on about facts sometimes came off as annoying (since Netto really just wanted to get into the onsen already, darn it!), but ultimately, Netto loved Tohru, braininess and all.

"No, there haven't been many NetCrimes lately, surprisingly. Manabe-san and the Net Police took down a small Dark Chip smuggling ring last week, but other than that, it's been pretty quiet."

Beneath his superficial calm, Tohru knew how juggling Net Saviour duties and expanding research at the Ministry of Science weighed down on Netto. It was only two years ago that Netto and his Science Labs team had been able to successfully replicate the technology necessary to open a Fossa Ambience rift to the parallel world of Beyondard in a controlled setting. Bridging the gap between the two worlds had catapulted Netto to the top of his field, so much so that many believed Netto's accomplishment had outpaced his father Yuichiro's achievements, but thankfully, Yuichiro had nothing but reverence for his son. To think, his oversleeping, Prince of Curry, impulsive dimwit hero son could come to overshadow his own scientific prowess. What pride! That, and Yuichiro-hakase and Haruka-obaasan were now spending their retirement vacationing all around the globe.

Those were some of the longest days, though. Netto was gone for weeks at a time, leading rigorous expeditions through the seam between worlds into terrain they had no idea how had changed in over a decade since Netto had first set foot on the alien soil all those years ago. Even from only a four-year-old's perspective, Raito would later recount to Tohru how his daddy spent restless nights wordlessly pacing the hallway outside his bedroom, jittery and hoping for Papa's safe return.

It was during that period that Tohru found himself increasingly relying on outside help. Unlike Netto, double-duty under that level of stress was not doable in the slightest. His job overseeing the waterworks was hectic, even with Iceman's assistance, and he did not want to subject Raito to valve checks and talk of purification tanks all day long. In swooped Meiru-chan and Dekao with the rather obvious suggestion of hiring a babysitter, only who they proposed wasn't exactly who Tohru had in mind. Netto may have forgiven the ex-World Three members for their past trespasses, and Dekao may have been their #1 curry chef protégé, but it was always a tougher topic for Tohru, seeing as how Madoi held his father hostage back in the day when the WWW were actually full-blown Net Terrorists. Then again, if it weren't for Madoi's failed scheme to take down the waterworks, Tohru may have never met and had the opportunity to fall for Netto. He had her to thank for that, he guessed.

Raito took after Netto in this regard. With his unbridled optimism and belief in the purity of others (coupled with the kindness he inherited from Tohru, of course), it was easy for Raito to bond with Hinoken over their shared passion in NetBattling (even though Raito was not due to receive his own promised NetNavi yet); with Madoi over her well-meaning if vapid beauty tips (which eventually prompted Netto to permit their _six-year-old_ son to dye his auburn hair bright red so he could be twinsies with his favourite aunt Madoi-san); with Mahajarama over Raito's love of curry (another trait passed down from Netto); and with Count Elec, who gave him guitar lessons. Even "Uncle" Gauss would pitch in when he felt it necessary to drop by Maha Ichiban to torment his younger brother. Raito was always amused by the crossdressing old man's theatrics. Tohru, not so much, given the embarrassing memories Gauss stirred of Netto managing to get Tohru to cosplay as Aki-chan with him when they were eleven (mental note: _never again!_ ).

In the end, he supposes the sacrifices were worth it. The fresh trip to Beyondard was a huge personal win for Netto, and with the crack to the other dimension remaining stable and open, it was a chance for those who had already passed through to the other side before to reunite with old friends and for a new joint society to be formed. Faces Tohru did not recognize: Phakchi Faran, a former luxury liner chef with a mastery of the knife; Aragaki Kojirou, a bratty kid with a heart of gold; Dark Kirisaki, a gloomy assassin-turned-messenger; and Horisugi Dotarou and Mister Press, a pair of hole-digging construction junkies. And alternate versions of familiar faces too! Tohru had to admit, Netto did get a kick out of introducing Beyondard's Captain Mask to this world's Commander Beef. Both Masa-sans were the spitting image of each other, down to telling everyone to take their calcium. It was quite a riot.

Then there was the Synchronizer himself: Trill. The child Navi had quite a lot of catching up to do with his oniisan Rockman, and expressed his elation in true Trill fashion, persistently and loudly. The whole network literally shook with his laughter as soon as he launched himself into Rockman's arms. As promised, Trill had been brave and remained behind with Iris to aid in recovery efforts and usher in an era of prosperity for Beyondard after Netto and company successfully cleansed the world of the virulent Beast Factor. With Beyondard finally at peace and a new unity emerging between the two Earths via Netto's project, now was truly the moment that Trill could return.

And come back he did. Netto offered Trill a surprising proposition: a permanent home with himself, Rockman, and their family back in Akihara Town. Trill would become Raito's Navi, Papa's homecoming present to his son. Trill had accepted in a nanosecond, thrilled by the prospect of having an operator of his very own. The smiles those two kids traded when they first met were big enough to eclipse the sun, and Netto and his family basked in the radiance. Thus began Raito and Trill's newly minted, yet already unbreakable friendship.

Netto continued, interrupting Tohru's thoughts, "We've been detecting abnormal tachyon emissions and localized distortions in space-time throughout Densan City. That's why I'm looking through Papa's old notes, to find any clues as to what could be the source of the disturbances. The energy readings we've been getting are similar to those of Dr. Wily's Spectrum program."

Tohru winced at the mention. Back when they were in the sixth grade, the evil Dr. Regal had unleashed the now-defunct program in a bid to evolve himself as Nebula Grey and convert the entire world into data and invert cyberspace. Tohru vaguely recalled the brief but shocking pain of disintegration, but he knew it was worse for Netto, who had survived Regal's first salvo, only to discover his friends had been seemingly obliterated by the beams of light tearing across land and sea. Netto still had nightmares of losing his loved ones to Regal's rampage.

"Have they shown up here in Akihara Town? Is it bad?" Tohru inquired with a concerned tone.

"Not yet. As far as we can tell, Densan Town is taking the brunt of it. No reported casualties, so at least that's good news."

Tohru did not look any more put at ease. On cue, Netto embraced him from the side, trying to bring him back to the happier scenes of Raito and Trill he knew Tohru had been reminiscing about earlier. He felt like an idiot for being such a motormouth and spooking Tohru like this.

"It's okay. I'm okay, Tohru. _We're_ okay." He rubbed Tohru's arms reassuringly. Then, he deadpanned, "'cept now I'm hungry."

Tohru laughed at that, perking up. Typical. But then he remembered. "Ah, the potatoes!"


	2. Chapter 2

The Place Where Light Reaches

Author's Note: Enjoy the story and R&R.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to or of the Rockman EXE series.

Pairing: Established Netto x Tohru, others in future chapters.

Summary:

After an accident, Hikari Raito and his NetNavi partner Trill find themselves reliving the cherished tale of his parents' love.

* * *

Chapter 2

"All right, everyone. Stay with the group."

Raito yawned, settling into the semicircle with his classmates, who had crowded around the next item on the tour. As usual, he overslept the night before, and he was still shaking off some residual drowsiness. But then again, so had Netto. He really was his father's son. Luckily, they both had Tohru to count on, being the early riser that he was. Raito could still remember the knowing look Tohru gave after nudging his two drooling sleepyhead boys out of their slumber, only to chide them on their total predictability.

Not that Raito didn't find his current predicament – a class field trip to Science Labs – interesting. Quite the opposite. He was always the first to jump on the hype train when Netto explained his newest scientific breakthrough, listening intently as Papa talked (or some would say, bragged) about how awesome his latest invention was. But as Papa would agree, sometimes nothing beat the soft promise of a good pillow. Also, it just wasn't the same when it wasn't Papa doing the explaining.

Catching onto his restlessness, Mariko-sensei waved a hand in Raito's face to snap him out of his trance, urging him to refocus on the man in the white lab coat who was busy demonstrating to the assembled students. He identified a tinge of Tohru in his teacher's voice, the unmistakable echo of Otosan lecturing him to remain attentive. Raito, in turn, straightened up immediately like a meerkat to a loud noise. It was a maneuver he had evidently practiced before because Mariko-sensei, satisfied that he was now paying attention again (or at least, appeared to be), returned to hearing out the rest of the discussion herself.

The scientist with overstated bushy eyebrows was going on about IPC's collaboration with the Ministry of Science on the fifth generation of Personal Terminals.

Raito subconsciously thumbed the PET in the carrying pouch at his hip out of habit, one of the first of such models off the production line and a birthday gift from IPC's president himself, Ijuuin Enzan. The fifth-generation PET had all the bells and whistles of its predecessors, as the scientist remarked, but boasted a reduced lag time for commands issued through the onboard Battle Chip Gate. Additionally, it was equipped with advanced Dekonium heat shielding courtesy of rival company Gabgom's Rare Metal warehouse to prevent circuit failure, and incorporated Dr. Hikari's (Netto's) own Kizuna Ryoku system, which had been developed for primitive viewing and scanning of electromagnetic waves emitted by the internet. Netto hoped his nascent tech would one day allow humankind to connect via the Wave Road, an invisible set of paths tying together every electronic device on the planet that he hypothesized constituted a third layer of existence beyond the real and cyber worlds.

All in all, the fifth-generation PET put the prior versions to shame. Mariko-sensei was the only person Raito knew, or perhaps _anyone_ knew, who still used a third-generation Progress PET. The school budget in Akihara was sorely abysmal, and there was definitely the occasional snicker at Mariko-sensei's expense behind her back.

Their scientist/tour guide finished his speech, and everyone broke for lunch in the building's cafeteria. Tohru had packed Raito onigiri, chicken drumettes, two apples, and a can of orange juice. Netto had snuck in Raito's favourite soda when Tohru wasn't looking, though both father and son were certain Tohru knew full well and was simply feigning ignorance to give the two a moment of victory to bond over. The extra apple proved as much, since Raito hastily traded it and the juice away to the class health nut for custard pudding.

The pudding sat appetizingly on Raito's plate, attracting the envious stares of several of his friends and one NetNavi in particular.

"Wow, it's amazing." Trill's hologram circled the dessert with a spring in his step. "Trill wants some too!"

Spoon raised, Raito fiddled with the hair tie holding back his ponytail and scratched his head with his free hand. He speculated how to break it to Trill that it was not possible for him to have any pudding without upsetting his oblivious companion. Trill could be quite the little monster when he didn't get what he wanted. Did Papa and Rockman ever have this problem when caring for the tyke? Maybe he could just let Trill take a pretend holographic bite and the Navi would be none the wiser.

Raito didn't have a chance to find out. The lights suddenly went dark, before flickering back on a second later. The sound of automated steel doors slamming down reverberated from one end of the room to the other, frightening the dining kids and sending Mariko-sensei into full mama bear mode as she attempted to corral the whole lot of them into one spot. Trill, by contrast, was genuinely excited and seemed to be enjoying it.

Elsewhere in the Science Labs, Netto was frantically trying to get a handle on the situation. Sirens were going off. Screens were displaying warnings of a security breach. Computer viruses had poured in out of nowhere and were presently launching an offensive on SciLab's first line of defence in the cyberworld. Although few were making it past the facility's impressive antivirus barriers, their sheer numbers were causing the power grid to go haywire. Netto's attention was divided between the imminent threat the viruses posed and the thought that somewhere on the grounds, his son was caught up in the chaos.

"Meijin-san, I'll leave things here to you," Netto told his senior colleague.

Netto extracted an earpiece from his desk and donned it, and with a push of a button, a magenta-coloured piece of glass retracted from inside and overlaid his right eye. The gadget's rim blinked green, signalling a successful link to the PET strapped to his arm. He dashed out of the control room, faintly aware of Meijin uttering his classic "No need for formalities!"

"P-Gazer, online! Begin search!" A laser sight emerged over Netto's eye, rapidly analyzing and feeding data on the environment into his line of vision. With his P-Gazer on, Netto was able to see the changes in temperature ahead of him, as well as the near-imperceptible trails of the Wave Road weaving through the halls.

In this web of electromagnetic waves, a massive cluster of red came into view and highlighted the site of greatest viral activity, centered three doors down on what Netto realized with alarm was the machine responsible for maintaining the Fossa Ambience to Beyondard. Unless they needed to make a trip to Beyondard or vice versa, it was usually switched off, but the viruses had reactivated it upon their intrusion, and the machine was siphoning off the surrounding electricity for some unknown purpose.

Netto detached his PET from its holster, swung it in an arc, and aimed it at an entry port on the console. "Plug-in, Rockman EXE! Transmission!"

Once inside the console, Rockman began deleting viruses left and right with his Rock Buster. The viruses swarmed towards the Navi, only to be repelled by energy from his arm mounted blaster.

"Battle Chip, Samurai Sword! Slot-in!"

Netto downloaded the weapon, and Rockman's buster was replaced by a sharpened katana. His Navi parried, dispatched the nearest virus, and then continued with a series of precise slashes to cut down the horde that followed.

"Battle Chip, Geyser! Slot-in!"

Rockman struck the floor, and a ring of water unfurled across the battlefield. The water erupted skyward, drowning the remaining viruses beneath a tidal wave.

"You did it, Rockman!"

Netto's praise was, however, premature. Rockman was swept aside by an unseen player joining the fray.

"Rockman!"

As Rockman recovered from the surprise attack, the interloper came forward, revealing himself to be a NetNavi with timepieces adorning his body and the afterimage of a large digital clock on his back.

"Who are you?" Rockman questioned. "The viruses from before, they were your doing, weren't they?"

His impish smirk confirmed Rockman's suspicions. "I am Clockman, Bandit of Time and Stealer of Beautiful Maidens. And you, Hikari Netto and Rockman, are in the way of my grand design!"

Netto and Rockman had identically disgusted reactions. "Gross."

The Navi called Clockman hurled a propeller-like projectile, which Rockman dodged and countered with shots fired from his buster. The blasts vanished harmlessly into swirling pools of green light Clockman summoned to protect himself, and then resurfaced from the same pools with twice the force.

Netto inserted a defensive chip of his own, deflecting the rebound, but Clockman took the opportunity to call forth a trinity of crimson dragons from his warp holes. They bore their fangs and took long swipes at the blue Navi with their claws. Rockman flailed, managing to evade the first two dragons' assaults, but while he was distracted, the third swooped in from above, pinning him like a bug. The reptilian beast exhaled a cloud of smoke at point-blank range, readying a fireball in its belly.

"This is bad. Battle Chip, Bamboo Lance! Slot-in!"

Before the dragon could land a fatal blow, it was skewered by bamboo spears, giving Rockman an opening to stand and strike back.

"Battle Chip, Vulcan! Triple slot-in!"

Each of Rockman's hands became a gatling gun. He brought them together to form a single chain gun, and proceeded to unload a seemingly endless supply of ammunition on the two dragons. "Program Advance! Mugen Vulcan!"

The rounds pierced the creatures' tough hides, and Clockman was caught unawares when the shower of bullets made it to him, forcibly logging him out.

Unfortunately for Netto, Clockman had not fled; rather, he materialized in the real world right in front of him.

Netto scrambled, narrowly avoiding another of Clockman's projectiles that obliterated a wall and sent chunks of debris flying.

"You may have wounded me, but I have already gathered the energy I need. This is your end, Hikari Netto."

With that, Clockman willed said energy into a solid sphere between his palms, then released it in a radial pattern. The sphere grew and grew until the Navi was no longer visible, and the singularity collapsed in on itself with an audible _boom_. In its place, a deep gaping portal lined with scintillating lights threatened to swallow them whole. There was no mistake: Clockman had used the energy they regularly employed for reaching Beyondard to instead rip a hole in the fabric of reality and expose the Past Tunnel, a gateway through time. Now Netto understood where all the recent space-time anomalies throughout the city had come from. Clockman possessed the ability to travel through time given a powerful enough energy source, and was leaving his temporal signature wherever and _whenever_ he went.

"Papa!"

Netto froze. Raito had wandered away from his class, and was making a beeline for his father through the caved-in wall, tears streaking his cheeks.

"Raito, stay back!"

"You brat!"

Clockman swatted the boy, but Raito tucked and rolled, and once he was clear, Rockman made his move in the cyberworld, snapping a clump of fiber optic cable in the ceiling which crashed down on the villain in the real world. Clockman was crushed, yet the Past Tunnel did not recede. Raito lost his balance and slid towards it.

Grabbing hold, Netto clung desperately to his son. He couldn't let this happen. Not again. The memory of losing everyone he held dear to Spectrum replayed in his mind and was stuck on repeat. His PET answering static. His friends reduced to less than dust in the wind. _Tohru gone_.

But he was losing his grip. The Past Tunnel's gravity was too strong. Raito hooked his fingers into Netto's wristband in one last futile attempt to escape the pull, but the wristband – and his father's Synchro Chip contained therein – slipped off and Raito tumbled backwards, clutching the band and chip to his chest.

Netto could only watch in horror as his son fragmented into bits of data and was sucked into the closing void.

"PAPA!"

Then everything was still. The air was acrid, a small rain of cinders. The bile rose in his throat. Netto was numb and barely registered his own scream.

"RAITO!"


	3. Chapter 3

The Place Where Light Reaches

Author's Note: Enjoy the story and R&R.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to or of the Rockman EXE series.

Pairings: Established Netto x Tohru. Referenced past (canon) Meijin x Makoto.

Summary:

After an accident, Hikari Raito and his NetNavi partner Trill find themselves reliving the cherished tale of his parents' love.

* * *

Chapter 3

In the currently nearly deserted bowels of Akihara University's science building, behind a three-inch-thick pane of glass, a featureless humanoid hung suspended in the center of a messy laboratory from ten alternating black, red, and gold wires. Outside the enclosure, a video camera was squarely trained on the robot's inert form, and long serpentine printouts full of accumulated data crisscrossed the floor in an ever-growing pile that came up to the ankles. Off in an adjacent section, there were lit alcoves, each housing variations of the same contraption attached to their own sets of wires.

Two technicians attended to the experiment in progress. The first, Aoki Makoto, was a spectacled and ponytailed woman with wild fiery bangs. She entered instructions on her computer with a look of absolute determination painting her pearly features, while the second, her nineteen-year-old intern, was busy reviewing diagnostics on his PET.

"Copy driver."

"Check."

"Conversion module."

"Check."

"Starting upload. Dummy Navi, plug-in." Makoto pulled a lever, and a laser was guided into the control panel on the robot's chest.

The automaton stiffened and its extremities briefly glowed green. One after the other, its limbs began to shape themselves into more distinct appendages. Digits sprouted, arms lengthened, feet found purchase, and the green hue soon spread to the torso, smooth white metal giving way to a rugged ochre. Pauldrons manifested atop previously bare shoulders, and an imposing helmeted visage completed the ensemble. The robot held this appearance firm for fifteen seconds, but then the wires came loose, dropping it to the ground in a heap, where it reverted to its nondescript state.

"Oh, man. Another failure." Netto jotted down notes, sheathing his touch pen. "That's the third time this week, Oneesan."

"It's to be expected. With the new safety protocols we installed, the old coding the Zoanoroids gave me to power the conversion process is no longer viable. We just need to keep testing possible configurations to determine the greatest energy output that won't also jeopardize the Copyroids' structural integrity."

Netto nodded. He knew how much this research meant to her.

For the past seven years, Makoto had laboured tirelessly to resurrect her life's work: Copyroids, robotic vessels into which NetNavis could be plugged in to substantiate in the real world. The Zoanoroid invaders hailing from Beyondard had taken advantage of Makoto's aspirations for a world uniting humans and NetNavis by providing her with the last puzzle piece required to realize her dream, but they swiftly hijacked the technology for themselves and destroyed her files. Makoto was forced to observe, helpless, as her Copyroids were repurposed into instruments of war by the extradimensional armies of Greiga and Falzar. With the Cyber Beasts now vanquished, Makoto's sincerest desire was for her creations to be used for good, as originally intended.

If they ever managed to build a functioning Copyroid again, that is.

Makoto rubbed her aching temples, then turned to her assistant. "The Copyroid's energy matrix might be reacting negatively to the Crockel induction coils we ordered from Basconoma. Maybe Meijin-kun could take a swing at this. He was the one who decrypted the Zoanoroids' code."

Though in agreement at the suggestion of her ex and his superior, there was a knock at the door before Netto could reply.

"Sorry I'm late, Sensei!"

The newcomer was a teenager dressed in a blue t-shirt, blue sneakers, and orange cargo shorts. He had a yellow baseball cap on backwards, with a cowlick peeking out, big brown eyes, and a button nose. It took a minute, but the lightbulb finally went off in Netto's head.

"Kosuke-kun? Is that you?"

"Ah, Netto-san! Long time no see."

Judging by his clothes, not much had changed in the years since they met, except Kosuke was taller than Netto remembered. Netto had rescued him after Kosuke's prickly grandfather, Tensuke-jiisan (or "Jii," as he was affectionately referred to by his grandson), lost control of a giant mechanical Spinning Top of Doom that chased his grandson all over town. Kosuke was still in awe at some of the acrobatics Netto pulled to save him; namely, backflipping off an alley wall on rollerblades with the top barrelling down on them. Or perhaps that was just what his grade-schooler brain could cobble together in the heat of the moment at the time.

"What are you doing in a place like this? You're a couple years out, aren't you?"

"I tutor him in science, actually," Makoto interjected. "Did something happen, Kosuke-kun?" His tardiness worried her.

"I got bike-jacked."

Netto sweatdropped. "By Jasmine again?"

"No, not like the stuff on TV this time," the teen clarified, thinking back to the girl from Choina who borrowed his bike to pursue corporate saboteurs.

"Sorry."

"It's fine. I'm sure it will turn up."

"Let me clean up, and then we can go for your session." Makoto unlocked the testing chamber, and stepped inside. She briskly assembled the throttled Copyroid's strewn-about parts in a bin in preparation for the next trial, pausing between each to inspect for damage.

Meanwhile, Netto's PET rang.

"Netto-kun, you've got mail," Rockman announced.

"Mail?"

Makoto had finished storing the Copyroid, locking up once more. "Something important?"

"An old buddy is visiting from abroad. We planned on hanging out on campus after I'm done here."

"Oh. Okay, then. We'll schedule another trial for next week."

"Roger that! See you later, Oneesan. Kosuke-kun." He retrieved his scarf and messenger bag from a cubby, clicked his removeable skates into position underneath his soles, and waved goodbye.

Once Netto left and she was sure he could not hear her anymore, Makoto addressed Kosuke, "I'm afraid we're going to have to forgo our usual session today. There's someone I need you to meet."

Kosuke blinked in confusion. His tutor simply directed him to follow her.

…

A boy and his NetNavi were camped out on the floor in front of a television set, at a distance that would make any sane bystander nervous. The sheets were drawn tight up to his neck, surrounding him in a makeshift cocoon. His PET was placed neatly in his lap, and the TV remote under the covers.

"How 'bout cartoons?" Trill recommended from his perch on top of his operator's mobile.

Raito took the request under advisement as he flipped through channels. He glimpsed an animated gorilla whacking birds with a comically oversized mallet, ladies hocking a shiny necklace on a shopping network, and a dating show that Meiru-san and Anetta-san liked to watch when they were over babysitting him, before deciding on the local news station. A woman dolled up in a frilled chartreuse overcoat and toad-face hat whom Raito recognized as Midorikawa Kero of KeroKero News was reporting.

"And now onto entertainment. Police have apprehended a suspect today purported to be responsible for interrupting an industry awards presentation, after witnesses tipped off authorities to a man with purple hair in pink tuxedo stalking the awards show backlot."

"Trill is bored! This is boring!"

"Play with your virus cubes."

To be honest, Raito wasn't paying attention either.

The infant stomped his boots incredulously. "Don't wanna! Don't wanna!"

Raito sympathized with his whining Navi. He shut the TV off, climbed onto the couch, and brought the sheets over his head, enfolding them around his shoulders. He missed his parents. He wondered if they were looking for him. He was scared they wouldn't be able to find him.

"Here we are." Makoto opened the door to her on-site residence, inviting Kosuke in from the midday sun.

The befuddled teen was instantly drawn to the bundled-up, self-made pig in a blanket on the sofa, flanked by the hologram of a baby-like NetNavi, both staring back at him with utter curiosity.

"Hello, I'm Kosuke."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Hikari Raito."

That caught Kosuke off guard.

"And this is my Navi."

"The 'Synchronizer,' according to his ID tag," Makoto indicated.

"It's 'Trill!'" the tot cheerfully introduced himself.

Kosuke stroked his chin. "Hikari? Are you related to Netto-san?"

"You know Papa?"

"Papa? Wait, Netto-san doesn't have a son! Does he?" He balked at Makoto.

She wiped her glasses. "Two night ago, I was grading papers. There was this column of light that filled the sky…"

"A column of light?"

"Yes. I drove as fast as I could, and tracked it to the abandoned department store outside the city. You know, the one they say is haunted? But when I arrived, the light was already gone and I found this boy unconscious in the middle of the street. Fortunately, he was still breathing."

"So you took him here to get better."

"Exactly. When he awoke and told me who he was, I couldn't believe it. But when he and Trill described feeling air sick, I ran some tests. Upon closer examination of his PET's internal chronometer, I concluded that time for both he and his Navi are progressing at a different rate than for the rest of us."

Kosuke raised an eyebrow. His mentor was slipping into science jargon territory.

"In other words, Raito-kun and Trill are not of our time. They are from the _future_. I knew I couldn't let knowledge of this leak, so I've been keeping him here and away from Netto-kun. Them coming face to face in this time period could have drastic effects and –"

"– change the future as he knows it!" Kosuke shouted dramatically, chest puffed out and one foot on the couch in a mock superhero pose.

Makoto face faulted. Trill applauded.

"What? Tell me this isn't like every best sci-fi action movie ever made."

She ignored his inner child showing. "Can you keep him occupied? I need to continue analyzing the information from his PET for hints so we can hopefully return him to his own time."

Hijinks with a kid from the future. Sounded like fun. Definitely more stimulating than physics equations. "You betcha."

"Just make sure he stays out of sight."

"Yeah, yeah. Like I said, I've seen all those movies," Kosuke assured.

Makoto was reasonably unconvinced, yet trusted him nonetheless. Hightailing it out of the dormitory, she left her pupil and his new accidental time traveler ward to their own devices.

Kosuke saw Raito itching his hand. He was wearing a wristband with Rockman's mark. Aside from being washed out, it was a dead ringer for the one Netto sported earlier.

"That belongs to your Papa, doesn't it?"

"Mm-hmm."

"How did you wind up here anyway?"

"A bad Navi tried to take Papa away. Got me instead."

"Lucky Sensei found you. Until she figures out how to send you home, I'll take care of you. What do you want to do first?"

"You said you know Papa, right?"

"Yep."

"I want to go where Papa is."

"We can't. You're not born yet. If Netto-san saw you, bad things could happen. No one else can know."

Raito slumped further into the funky-smelling couch, dejected, but unexpectedly brightened when Trill poked him and whispered a sweet idea into his ear. The world's cutest conspiratorial huddle.

"Secret agents!" the two yelled.

"Secret agents?"

"Yes, let's be secret agents! If we are secret agents, I can see Papa, and he won't know it's us!"

"Spy on him, huh?" Kosuke considered the notion. It wasn't the worst idea. A seasoned operative and his naïve sidekick on a mission. Classified intelligence the fate of the world hinged on. Surveilling targets. Taking names. Crawling through air ducts (okay, that was a bridge too far). All the trappings of a blockbuster. Raito was a kid after his own heart.

"All right, let's do it!"

Raito and Trill rejoiced. Triumphant. Fists out.

"Stick by me, though. We wouldn't want you to cease to exist or anything."


	4. Chapter 4

The Place Where Light Reaches

Author's Note: Enjoy the story and R&R.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to or of the Rockman EXE series.

Pairings: Established Tohru x Teruo. Referenced one-sided (canon) Tohru x Pride, one-sided (canon) Tohru x Iris.

Summary:

After an accident, Hikari Raito and his NetNavi partner Trill find themselves reliving the cherished tale of his parents' love.

* * *

Chapter 4

Hikawa Tohru surveyed the hustle and bustle of the Akihara University campus coffeehouse, a more disappointed than impatient specter looming over his normally reserved disposition. He chewed his lip and twisted one of the drawstrings of his hoodie between a thumb and forefinger while around him, patrons went about their routines – placing and retrieving their orders, chatting about the weather or who their roommates were seeing, and cramming last minute for exams doped up on caffeine.

"He's late," the young man said without expecting circumstances to improve. "You did send him an email to remind him, right Iceman?"

"Yes, ten minutes ago, desu," his short parka-bound NetNavi replied from the turquoise-coloured PET in his operator's pocket. Iceman did not bother to project a hologram of himself.

Tohru spared a glance at his watch, sighing to himself. Four years they'd been apart, yet his friend's punctuality was as dismal as always. Though his friend's lateness stung a bit, Meiru-chan was not around to rope Tohru into going all devil horns on him as they often did in their elementary school days, so he held back the urge to chastise his absent company.

So preoccupied was Tohru with his nostalgic musings that he did not notice an orange blur creep into the establishment and rapidly make its way towards him from behind, a lion trained on its next meal. The predator pounced, apparently aiming for the snowflake insignia emblazoned on the back of the man's sweatshirt like it was a shrieking red and white bullseye.

"Tohru-kun!" Netto glomped his friend in greeting, nearly knocking him off his feet.

Tohru gasped, steeling himself against the irresistible force that was Hikari Netto, and somehow finding the fortitude to remain upright, if only on a single hopping foot. A herd of customers cast quizzical looks at the exuberant brunette who just bounced in from the pre-autumn chill, but quickly resumed minding their own affairs.

"Netto-kun, warn me when you're going to do that!"

"Sorry, my bad!" Netto laughed, untangling himself from the victim of his startling entrance. "I missed you, is all."

Tohru smiled, placated after regaining use of both his legs. He brought the older one in for a long-awaited hug, gently caressing his neck. "I missed you too."

"Save us a table. I'll get us some drinks. What do you want?"

Tohru dictated his preference, and then found them a spot in the corner where they could converse relatively privately. Netto returned in due course, pulling up a chair opposite.

When Netto set down their beverages, Tohru realized with heightening apprehension how he may have made an error in judgment. His friend was hyper as is without the extra jolt caffeine provided, so it wasn't worth the 500 Zeny he was being treated to if Netto wigged out.

"Should you really be drinking that?"

"Does the thought of me having coffee frighten you?" He twitched for emphasis. Playful. Fiendish.

Tohru's nervous silence was all the answer he needed.

Netto chuckled. "Relax. It's decaf. I don't touch the heavy stuff anymore, ever since the Incident We Shall Not Speak Of."

"The Incident We Shall Not Speak Of?"

Bandana Boy wasn't talking, so Rockman stepped in to rectify the situation. "Enzan didn't appreciate the condition Netto-kun left his office in the last time he had coffee. He was _this_ close to six billion in damages, if security hadn't stopped him from crowbarring IPC's main computer. They had to drag him away kicking and screaming."

"Rockman, you bigmouth!" Steam was practically shooting out his nostrils.

Tohru resisted cracking up between swigs from his own cup. Not one to dwell cruelly on Netto's hitherto unsung shame, he shifted gears. "So how's everyone been doing? I hear Higureya's booming."

"Oh yeah, Higure-san has the new Battle Chip Trader in, so business is good. Numberman's been keeping him in line as well. But you know how much of an otaku Higure-san is. He'll probably just spend everything he's earned on rare chips as soon as the coast is clear. Poor Shuuko-san, I think she might be out of the job soon."

"It's been ages since Iceman and Aquaman had a playdate too. I'll have to pencil something in."

Iceman chose that moment to flicker into being. "I can't wait, desu! It's going to be so much fun, desu!" The chibi Eskimo Navi jiggled his rosy cheeks.

"How about you? How long are you back for, anyways?" Netto asked.

"I have several open offers, actually."

No surprise there. Tohru had been hard at it studying overseas in Amerope. With his academic prowess and diligent work ethic, it was a foregone certainty he would be scouted by prospective recruiters.

"I was sorta awarded this scholarship, so I can continue my studies in Amerope, or I can transfer and attend this prestigious ice skating programme headed by an Olympic husband/wife team in Sharo. In either scenario, I'd have to permanently relocate."

Netto was awestruck. Here he was toiling as an intern in his hometown with the odd Net Saviour commission on the side, while his childhood pal was out storming the barracks.

"I'm also considering coming back to Japan after I graduate. With my boyfriend."

That was new.

"Your _boyfriend_?" Netto yelled incredulously. His eyes were bigger than saucers, and Rockman also acknowledged his own astonishment with an oblique "Eh?"

Tohru blushed shyly.

"I thought you liked girls! Didn't I see you swooning over Pride and Iris?"

"Netto-kun, I was what, eleven? Twelve?"

That was true. Tohru would have had plenty of time to figure out just where he stood in the intervening span. Still, it was no less jarring. And Netto did feel a pang of resentment that this was the first he was hearing about it.

"You're not mad at me, are you?" Tohru pleaded, a quiver of dismay evident in his voice. Netto's opinion clearly mattered dearly to him.

"O-of course not!" Netto reassured, a little too enthusiastically. "I support you a hundred percent."

That was a relief.

"So, who's the lucky guy?"

"His name is Jomon Teruo."

"Jomon?"

"As in Japan's Jomon Electric megastore?" Rockman chimed in.

"That's it. His grandfather is the CEO."

 _Wonderful._ Tohru was already destined for great things. Now, on top of that, he was beholden to some snotty rich kid. The spawn of one of the country's most affluent name-brand families, in fact. They'd probably ride off into the sunset together in a luxury sedan, flocked by enough maids and servants to make Yaito-chan jealous.

"To tell you the truth, when I first began my studies in Amerope, I felt really isolated. They didn't say it out loud, but I could tell the other students didn't want me around because I was the only foreigner in my year."

"That's terrible, Tohru-kun." His rage redoubling, Netto clenched a fist beneath the table. If anybody ever dared ostracize Tohru in his presence, Netto had half a mind to tear into them with his bare hands.

"My counsellor recommended I check out Japan Club. That's where I met Teruo-kun. He was super welcoming, and we planned all sorts of cultural events together to promote awareness."

Okay, so maybe this guy wasn't the moneygrubbing snake Netto initially visualized him to be. More of a prized puppy doted on by passersby. Still a mutt lying in a bed of cash, regardless.

"He even took me to an Ameropan hot spring during Christmas break! It's a completely different experience than in Japan."

 _I bet. In Amerope, they don't taste-test the water before bathing in it. Yech!_

"For example…"

Netto tuned Tohru out after he started babbling. It was rude, yes, but once Tohru got going like this, it was prudent to hush up and not disturb the hornet's nest, lest he incur its wrath. He could personally attest to the end result of such a blunder. Granted, Tohru was a softie, but undervalue his hobby and you'd better be prepared for a death glare and ironic punishment of volcanic proportions.

Preying upon innocent Tohru's love of onsen, though. Scratch that. This dog was a wolf.

"He sounds," Netto hesitated, gritting his teeth, "like a heartthrob."

"Isn't he?"

A shout rose above the clamour of the coffeehouse. "Tohru-chan!"

Netto choked at the cutesy nickname.

Tohru traced the familiar drawl to a scruffy fellow, who sauntered over to their table.

"What are you doing here? Don't you have a shareholders' meeting?"

The geek delivered a chaste kiss to the now-standing Tohru's cheek, an act which caused Netto discomfort. "C-cancelled. S-so I flew here instead."

"I'm glad you came. This is the friend I told you about." Tohru motioned to Netto.

"H-hi there, I-I'm Jomon Teruo."

"Hikari Netto." They shook hands, and the seated one noted the latter's stutter.

"And I'm Rockman. A pleasure to make your acquaintance," his Navi added politely.

So this was the wolf himself. Not what Netto imagined. The freckled hafu wore a baggy newsboy hat, rimless vintage pink sunglasses, long-sleeved shirt with circle of iron filings splaying the front and lightning bolts running up the arms, white slacks, and utility belt. He looked more like a mechanic or a rock and roll delinquent than the grandson of an electronics magnate. The only overt indicator of his wealth was his one obnoxious pierced ear, flaunting a diamond earring.

"T-Tohru-chan's told me all about your work with Copyroids."

"It's not as glamorous as it seems."

"N-not at all. L-lemme tell ya, robots are fascinating. A-and you're apprenticing under Aoki Makoto? S-she's a legend in the robotics community."

"You should let Teruo-kun have a look at what you're working on," Tohru proposed. "Robotics are his specialty."

"Q-quit it, Tohru-chan."

Drat. He was modest too.

The pair became absorbed in each other, temporarily forgetting the third party right beside them. A leap of static rocketed the length of Netto's spine. He had no clue what to make of it or the scene unfolding before him: Teruo squeezing the youngest's arm; Tohru beet red, _fawning_ over the nerd. What happened to the boy he grew up with? The boy who got dizzy when the princess of Creamland came to town? The boy who eagerly approached the green-eyed exchange student on her first day of school? And where did this brainiac get off hitting on Tohru in public like this? Had he no shame? Sure, by all accounts, Teruo was a nice guy. But there was something off about him. His erudite demeanour must belie a darker character.

 _Maybe he's an axe murderer. Or maybe he's a weirdo stalker._

Netto didn't know why this was agitating him. He approved of Tohru's orientation. He should be happy for him, shouldn't he? Perhaps he just was fooling himself. Had his friend changed so much? Why couldn't he keep himself from fuming about this?

Rockman picked up on his operator's distress, but remained tight-lipped. No sense meddling now.

 _Or maybe he's a normal guy, you dolt. A normal guy who legitimately wants what's best for his significant other, and they're merely doing what boyfriends do, like any ordinary couple._

As if he could even begin to comprehend what it meant to be an ordinary couple. True romance had eluded him his whole life.

While Netto wrestled with his conscience, a barista who just finished her shift was trying to leave the premises, but found herself blocked at the exit by a potted tree two hooligans had lugged in from the patio. Said hooligans were concealing themselves behind the sapling, decked out in matching shades and trench coats, heedless to many a confused stare.

"Excuse me!"

"Shh!" the older hissed, accepting binoculars from his pint-sized partner. They were scoping out the clientele. "Can't you see we're sleuthing here?"


	5. Chapter 5

The Place Where Light Reaches

Author's Note: Enjoy the story and R&R.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to or of the Rockman EXE series.

Pairings: One-sided Netto x Tohru, established Tohru x Teruo. Referenced Enzan x Yaito, Saloma x Daisuke, one-sided Meiru x Netto, unrequited Dekao x Meiru.

Summary:

After an accident, Hikari Raito and his NetNavi partner Trill find themselves reliving the cherished tale of his parents' love.

* * *

Chapter 5

Four days passed since Netto and Tohru's reunion. Although irked over matters he reasoned were beyond his control, Netto had made it to the end of the outing by the skin of his teeth without anyone other than Rockman noticing, and with the benefit of sufficient distance and reflection, was able to adequately parse things out and think his feelings through. The frayed nerves and grievances of the bygone week were a faint inconvenience, like an apparition disappearing into the morning mists, leaving only a blissful reprieve that he was all too willing to claim with the dawning of a new red sun.

This afternoon, Netto was planted in a stool at the bar in Maha Ichiban, having arrived bearing his usual black hole of an appetite. The dog program Rush had materialized to compete against him in an eating contest. Empty dishes were stacked high, chronicling their prior conquests. Curb stomping his canine ally, Netto was now shovelling spoonful after spoonful of his choice entrée and the restaurant's secret menu item, All-Topping Curry, into his ever-unsated gullet. Behind the counter, Oyama Dekao was stirring a pot of his famous sauce, while his sous chef and acorn head younger brother, Chisao, was chopping onions. Mahajarama was handing off plates to the curry shop's delivery boy, Dingo, to dry.

"Did you know Tohru-kun is dating?" The Net Saviour gulped down his melon cream soda.

"Yeah, Jomon Teruo. Hard to believe." Dekao hoisted his sibling a pan so he could get caramelizing.

"Tohru-kun hangs on his every word. I can tell he really likes him." Netto enjoyed the slower pace of the conversation. It was decidedly less aggravating than venting his frustrations vis-à-vis Teruo between bites to every securable listener. And food always cheered him up.

The heavyset cook snapped a stick of cinnamon into his concoction, but then noticed he was low on specific ingredients. He fetched his PET. "Hang on a sec. Gutsman, make a spice run in Internet City. Two kilograms of cumin, and one kilogram each of turmeric and coriander."

"Leave it to me, guts!" Gutsman dismissed his uniform, raring to log onto the net.

"You sure you can remember that all by yourself, bud?" Dingo's Navi, Tomahawkman, wisecracked.

"Gutsman does not require your assistance, guts."

"Follow him anyway, Tomahawkman," Dingo instructed, laughing. "If he gets mixed up, not even Totem-sama could put him back on track."

The two bickering NetNavis departed on their errand.

Dekao blended in garam masala. "You're not mad at Tohru because he's dating a guy, are you?"

Whoa, déjà vu.

"Nope, I support him a hundred percent," Netto repeated, this time with unwavering conviction.

"Really?" Dekao intoned sarcastically.

"Why wouldn't I?"

"I don't know. You were pretty angry three days ago."

"It doesn't bother me that he's into guys."

"Don't take this the wrong way, but with how you were bashing this Teruo fella, I thought you might actually be jealous."

Netto flushed scarlet. "W-what are you implying?"

"If I may," Mahajarama interrupted. Considering Hinoken, Madoi, and Count Elec were in Jyawaii pushing an ad campaign alongside their respective partners Fireman, Colouredman, and store mascot Elecman, the Namasty-born ex-WWW chief had taken it upon himself to bolster relations on the home front, parcelling out his cryptic wisdom to their valued paying customers.

"Maha?"

"It has been four years, and now he has a boyfriend. Perhaps you are worried things will be different now that there's this special person in his life. Or perhaps you are restless, and envy how he is dating and you are not."

"See? Master understands. Dekao the Man, right on the nose!" the culinary ace commended himself.

"Au!" Rush concurred.

The ruby tint staining Netto's mug died down as he grappled with their theory. Was this why he was so upset before? Was he jealous? But what did he have to be jealous for? When Tohru returned, it was like he never left. They instantly hit it off, and things were back to how they always were. Teruo hadn't changed that. And it's not as though he saw Tohru as any more than a friend.

Soft-spoken, yet articulate. Timid, yet fathomlessly loyal. Melty lips. Silky. Lithe. Tohru.

Holy moly! No, no, no, no, no! What was wrong with him?

Netto balled the fabric of his shorts. He aimed to compose himself with the recollection of when they first met, but his thoughts betrayed him. Brought together by World Three's (then) sinister machinations, Tohru had bumped into him, tripping up Netto on his rollerblades. Tohru's apology adrift on the wind, their gazes crossed. Chestnut on dark chocolate.

 _Cute._

Was this where it stemmed? The fleeting and quickly discarded observation of his adolescent self?

The revelation made him drop his spoon, and he struggled to find the words. He was red again. "Dekao, I think I – I think I may…"

"Say no more! What you need is more fuel!" Dekao batted his eyelashes and put on the widest bishie grin possible. He sampled his curry's flavour from the ladle, before doling out a second helping to his ailing chum. "For my eternal rival Netto, this is the least I can do!"

Chisao was overcome with admiration. "Amazing, chu! Nii-chama's shining!"

It was at that instant that another guest entered the shop. Netto dug into his grub with renewed vigour and ignored the pleasantries the staff tossed at the fresh arrival, to whom his back was turned.

"Am I a horrible person?" he asked no one in particular, utensil in mouth.

"No. Whatever your feelings are for Tohru, you were his friend first. Then this rich punk shows up, moves in on your turf, and steals your man before you even realize you may have always pined for more," Dekao consoled, patting the brunette's shoulder.

"Tohru-kun is not my man." Netto tried not to look crestfallen. He hated when Dekao was right, but while his conflicted emotions towards Tohru were flowing freely now, he wasn't ready to make a definitive call on whether he truly liked him to that extent.

Dingo seized the reins. "Don't sweat it! This just means you're double spirited!"

Netto arched a brow. "Like Soul Unison?"

Rockman, who had been scurrying to keep up with his operator's mercurial temperament lately, facepalmed.

"Not really." Dingo dropped the subject.

Having been preoccupied placing her own order with Mahajarama and only eavesdropping on bits and pieces of the exchange, the unannounced diner finally spoke up.

"Who are we talking about?"

"M-Meiru-chan? W-what are you doing here?"

Ah yes, Sakurai Meiru. Netto's neighbour and best female friend since the two were in diapers, and the object of Dekao's not-so-secret unrequited affections. An arbiter of rationality, unafraid to berate Netto and serve him a knuckle sandwich whenever he made a stupid decision. They were rarely apart, to the degree that everybody (including Meiru herself) presumed a romantic relationship between them was inevitable, except for the perpetually dense Netto and Rockman.

"I came here to get lunch. What else?" she said it as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, which it unequivocally was.

" _Boys_! They lack all delicacy!" Her pink Navi, Roll, twirled her antennae in disbelief, ostensibly to critique Rockman as well.

"So, what's the scoop? Are Enzan and Yaito-chan taking a break? Long distance must be tough. I wonder if they'll ever settle down like Miyuki-san said Saloma-san and Daisuke-san did."

Meiru could be forgiven for misconstruing the topic of their discussion. The roller coaster love affair between the vice presidents of IPC and Gabgom was prime material for gossips. When they weren't at each other's throats, sizing each other up with their companies' latest groundbreaking products (a linchpin for Yaito, given her Napoleon complex and big forehead), they were on extravagant getaways together in Kingland and Amerope. It was a tenuous arrangement, exacerbated by their families' history of animosity. One had to concede, however, the Ijuuins were fighting an uphill battle. The Ayanokoujis were prone to zanier comebacks. Their ancestors turned the family estate into a karakuri deathtrap capable of transforming into a freaking mecha, for goodness sake!

"That's not who we were discussing," Dingo elucidated.

"Oh?"

"Netto has a crush on Tohru, chu."

Meiru blanched.

"Ch-Chisao!" Netto gave a horrified yelp, and instinctively put as much space between himself and Meiru as he could.

A smart move, as Meiru was getting fired up. Quite literally, as misfortune would have it. She exuded a flaming aura that engulfed the room. Dingo lacked Netto's foresight to retreat, and summarily regretted it. Meiru went from tugging the hem of her skirt to screaming and grabbing the Aboriginal boy by his war shirt across the island, shaking him like there was no tomorrow.

Mahajarama darted for the back door.

"I'm scared, chu!" Chisao buried himself in his brother's potbelly.

"Au au!" Terrified by his owner, Rush booked it through a hole to the cyberworld.

Meiru's fury was palpable, and the only thing deterring the expansion of her anger was Dingo, who might as well have been scorched to a crisp. How could Netto have a crush on Tohru? This was worse than Pride and Jasmine. With them, Netto wasn't an active participant. He was just an unwitting youth on the end of some girl's advances. But Tohru? The more she mulled over it, the more it incensed her. Meiru drew on Tohru's condescension towards her ambitions of race queen and acting stardom to drive up her ire.

"Netto, what are you thinking? You can't have a crush on Tohru-kun! You're both guys!"

In her heart, Meiru knew gender had nothing to do with how she was behaving. Overdue as it was, Netto was beginning to take charge of his heretofore nonexistent love life, and though he wasn't doing it on purpose, she felt he was ditching her for Tohru. She had been at Netto's side for so long, patiently awaiting the day they could be more than friends, yet it was all coming to naught.

Netto reacted in kind. He was used to Meiru's outbursts and would normally cower until her tantrums subsided, but she had hit a nerve. He would not allow her to yank Tohru into the mess. This was his problem alone. To meet her asperity, he stoked a flame akin to the grudge he bore the time Asteroid Plantman removed the vegetables from his precious curry rice.

"So what if we're both guys? I didn't even say I liked him! Stay out of it, Meiru-chan!"

She was tempted to slap him. Their hostility collided in the middle, setting a snivelling Dingo ablaze again. If he wasn't a pile of smouldering ash before, he sure was now.

"Who I'm with is none of your business! You don't get to tell me otherwise!"

"Netto, you idiot!"

This argument was going nowhere. Netto scanned his PET on the restaurant's payment reader to disburse his bill, then stormed out through the sliding door in a huff.

As Meiru redirected her bellicosity towards Dekao and the barely breathing Dingo, in a corner booth, assassin for hire, Dark Miyabi, was quietly eating his usual medium pork curry and nursing a rapidly escalating headache.

"Shadowman, this is how far I and the Miyabi Clan have fallen," he lamented to his ninja Navi. "I am stuck listening to my Lord, Netto, angst like a hormonal teenage girl. _This_ is what has become of my profession!"

It didn't help that some kid was kicking his seat.

One booth over, Kosuke and Raito were into Phase Two of their covert operation. Kosuke opted for standard sunglasses. Raito had borrowed a page out of Bubbleman's playbook and taken Rush's place in a cheesy patchwork outfit mimicking the dog's likeness. To Kosuke, it was a passable costume. Trill, on the other hand, was a different story. Believing himself inconspicuous and hiding behind Raito's neck, the Synchronizer was in a ludicrous Halloween getup.

Kosuke swivelled his baseball cap. "Is _that_ what you call a disguise?"

Trill made ghost noises and poked his fingers through the eye holes punched out in the bed sheet he was wearing. "I dunno!"

In the aftermath of the tense standoff, these five spectators – three humans and two Navis – let out a collective sigh.


	6. Chapter 6

The Place Where Light Reaches

Author's Note: Enjoy the story and R&R.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to or of the Rockman EXE series.

Pairings: One-sided Netto x Tohru, Netto x Torakichi, established Tohru x Teruo. Referenced Charlie x Tesla, Enzan x Yaito, Enzan x Anetta.

Summary:

After an accident, Hikari Raito and his NetNavi partner Trill find themselves reliving the cherished tale of his parents' love.

* * *

Chapter 6

 _Run! Run! Run!_

Netto had no idea where he was off to or how long he had been running, only that he had to keep going. Meiru's criticism, Dekao and Dingo's endeavours to comfort him, his memories of Tohru, and Rockman's cries to stop all melded together and clouded his mind in a thick, insurmountable fog. His brain was mush, his heartbeat was in overdrive, and he was perspiring like a goose in the oven. Visibility was zero. His eyes were bloodshot and soaked in tears.

 _Faster! Faster!_

He didn't know how to feel anymore. Was Meiru right to be angry? What did Tohru mean to him, really? He despised himself for not being able to come up with answers.

"Netto-kun, look out!" Rockman hollered.

It was too late. Netto careened into a pedestrian who just turned the bend. While the other was surprisingly still standing, Netto lost his footing and fell to the pavement. Butt on the ground, he sniffled into his sleeve, and then stared up apologetically at the civilian he so unceremoniously plowed into.

 _T-Tohru-kun?_ he gasped beneath the tangerine sky.

His vision finally compensated, egressing its self-inflicted daze. No, he wasn't flashing back to the origins of his current mental unrest. He was endangering civilians and nearly getting himself killed dashing blindly into traffic, no more than a wrecking ball. It wasn't Tohru he tackled either.

"Watch where yer goin', ya silly moron!"

"Y-you're –!"

The cocky and pugnacious sneer. The tight-fitting furred bomber jacket. The daunting height difference. The harsh western Japanese accent. He remembered them well.

"Aragoma Torakichi!"

A celebrity from Akindo City. A prodigy and master tactician who scored victory in a Net Chess battle against the supercomputer Deep Green. They were opponents when Netto was eleven and Torakichi was fourteen, though they never did resolve the winner of the tussle.

"Oh, it's you." Torakichi also recognized his assailant. "How ya been, N1 Grand Prix runner-up?"

Netto picked himself up. "Torakichi, why are you in Akihara?"

"Heard a rumour there was an up-and-coming Net Chess whiz in town. Train fare down the drain. I whomped th' chump in three seconds flat!"

"As if anybody except me could give you a real fight! I've been fine, by the way," he appealed to Torakichi's equally inflated ego, covering his anguish.

"Ah yeah?" The tiger wasn't convinced. "Because you look like someone stole yer lunch."

Veins popped on Netto's forehead. "Says the brute who ate my food the last time he was here!"

"No need to be feisty. Just lookin' out for ya. I can tell you've been through the wringer."

There it was. A glint of honesty. Netto knew that Torakichi, despite his jerkish façade, was a decent guy. During their previous skirmish, Rockman's tag partner Roll was caught in his line of fire. Torakichi could have easily exploited the opening to checkmate, but instead chose to have his Navi, Kingman, stand down. At his core, he was honourable and dependable, which is why Netto had scant reservations doing what he did next.

"Torakichi, the truth is…"

Netto spilled his guts to him then and there. He was desperate for a receptive ear without pre-existing opinions of the past week's events to empathize with and alleviate his plight: his doubts about himself, his changing sentiments towards his boyhood friend, and the girl he trusted most inexplicably deserting him.

Once Netto was done divesting every iota of bottled-up turmoil, Torakichi responded smugly, "Sounds like ya had quite a week."

The younger troubled a sheepish nod.

"Let me offer you some advice, you shortsighted halfwit," Torakichi started with an eye-roll. "You must first come to truly accept yerself before you can work out yer feelings fer this Tohru kid. To quote Sun Tzu, 'Know your enemy and know yourself and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster.'"

"So I'm the problem?"

"Bingo. If you can't get over yerself, what are you?" he added snidely. For flourish, he produced his father's legendary "fan of spirit" from his rucksack.

"If you're waving that thing at me, I know you must be serious. But where do I even begin?"

Torakichi shrugged. "There's no helpin' it, I suppose. Okay, I'll date ya!"

Yikes, he was pointing straight at him. The direction Netto anticipated this encounter was heading had veered off course.

"W-what?"

"I'm a pretty laid back and open guy, so I'll give you _one_ pity date! That should be all it takes fer you to figure out if yer into dudes or not!"

"W-wha – H-how can you –? Just like that?"

"Wot d'ya say? I'm givin' you a free pass here. Don't squander it!"

Shock aside, it would be the perfect excuse for him to gain the clarity he sought. No strings attached. Emboldened by his rather shallow observation that Torakichi was not unattractive (as far as Netto's estimation of men was concerned), the Net Saviour thus decided to agree.

"Deal!"

Torakichi smirked slyly, to which the junior tacked on, "Seriously, you remind me of this helicopter pilot I know, Charlie Airstar. The rascal used to go out on dates with six different women a day until he wound up hitched to Neo WWW's boss, Tesla Magnets."

In Netto's PET, Rockman groaned. Could this day get any weirder?

…

That night, the two embarked on their scheduled rendezvous. Not to waste Torakichi's visit, they settled on a summer festival for their date. Netto went home to change into traditional matsuri fuku, while his mother loaned Torakichi her husband's jinbei for the occasion, remarkably casual about a stranger courting her son. The festival grounds they now traversed were furnished with paper lanterns and a variety of stalls and games, alive with rambunctious crowds, vibrant garb, and taiko drums. To Netto, however, what was most critical were the truckloads of delicious, nirvana-inducing goodies.

"How can you stomach all that?" Torakichi asked half-concernedly.

Viewing his disapproval as a challenge, Netto took a mega-sized bite out of his candy apple. He gnashed his teeth deliberately, making a point to accentuate each crunch, and afterwards wolfed down the candy floss in his other hand. Earlier, they had stopped by Masa-san's cart for takoyaki, reopening old wounds between the fishmonger and his nemesis Torakichi. Netto then devoured a path from booth to booth, vacuuming up everything from taiyaki and chicken karaage to yakisoba and dango. His tastes were indiscriminate, a vortex for edibles fried and grilled, sweet and salty alike.

"I'm fine! There's no amount of food I can't handle!"

Eschewing Netto's dual treats of ringo ame and watame – a tummy ache waiting to happen – Torakichi preferred a bucket of shaved ice. Being a picky eater, he had accosted the vendor for less condensed milk in his kakigori, so as to best savour the green tea syrup within.

"I've never seen anyone eat as much as you!"

"Torakichi's right, Netto-kun. We don't need a repeat of the N1, when you ate thirteen hot dogs and Masa-san's tuna bento, and almost didn't make it to the toilet on time," Rockman quipped.

Ever the stooge in Rockman's humiliating anecdotes, his operator combed the vicinity for an escape to the pinch he was in. Not too difficult. Hard to miss the firework launching rig parked by the water. And tending to that rig, a pyrotechnician he was acquainted with.

"Nenji-san!"

The aproned labourer left his post, sidestepping the roadblocks cordoning off the area. "Well, if it isn't the Net Saviour kid! How goes it? Having fun?"

"Yeah, lots!" He beamed. "This is my friend, Aragoma Torakichi."

"Yo!"

"I'm Rokushakudama Nenji."

"Nenji-san is a fireworks craftsman," Netto disclosed.

"A pyromaniac, huh?"

"Haha, good one, mister! Stick around. Nenjiro and I are about to start the show soon."

"Like I keep telling you, my name's not Nenjiro! It's Napalmman!" his short-fused Navi protested.

The temperature in Nenji's PET spiked, spurring the fireworks master to juggle the device between his gloves like a hot potato. Theirs was a unique brotherhood, to be sure. Napalmman was an Asteroid, an extraterrestrial bestowed upon humans to judge the species' worthiness to survive annihilation by the cyber god Duo. Although his initial handler misused him for evil, Napalmman was adopted, rehabilitated, and nursed back to health from near deletion by Nenji, and the dyad uncovered a common goal spreading joy to people through the art of explosions.

"Aniki!"

An inspector from Nenji's factory rushed to the scene.

"What is it?

"It's an emergency! There's a parapet that wasn't in the bay schematics blocking Section D!"

Nenji whipped out a pair of bombs, brandishing them to Netto. "How 'bout I blow it up, kid?"

"No way!"

"Joking!" Nenji chortled. He advised his co-worker, "Readjust the firing mechanism and elevate its vertical trajectory an additional forty-five degrees to compensate!"

"You seem busy. We'll leave you to it and nab a place to watch the show, Nenji-san."

"Looking forward to it, kid!"

Netto and Torakichi withdrew. Festivalgoers congregated, staking their own vantage to the impending display.

At the designated stroke of seven o'clock, Nenji triggered his magnum opus. The first firework whistled into the sky and flared out. A patter set off a chain of multicoloured eruptions that snaked a route east to west. Violet replaced green. Red replaced yellow. Pink replaced blue. Two willows painted the pitch-dark tableau a shimmering gold. Ten zigzagging machine gun-sounding crackers ended in spiders, bursting at short intervals. Nine high-arcing palms splintered, each blossoming thirty-some-odd falling stars. Seven chrysanthemums – a mix of pink, green, blue, and yellow – ballooned atop eight crossettes and four founts of light. Single file, five peonies exploded, five different hues.

"Tamaya!" the throng shouted the customary chant in exultation.

An hour into the celebration, Netto's eyes were still glazed over in wonderment. At the peak of an especially loud kamuro effect, Torakichi startled Netto by leaning in. He delayed for the go-ahead, and once he received his blessing, captured the flustered nineteen-year-old's lips. Rockman hid his sight, blushing as intensely.

This was it. His first real kiss. He'd been kissed on the cheek before by Pride, ages ago, but it scarce compared. He claimed no aptitude in this realm, so he let Torakichi lead.

An azure ring popped above. Its searing white kernel crumpled, becoming a horsetail resembling a comet.

Discerning his ineptitude, Torakichi broke away.

Netto exhaled. It wasn't awful. Torakichi was deservedly every bit the player he made himself out to be. But there was no spark. Merely a nagging sensation in the pit of his belly.

Torakichi wasn't Tohru.

"I understand now," he admitted, more to himself than those present.

"I figured ya might."

"Sorry. It's not that I don't like guys. Tohru-kun's just the one for me," he concluded.

"Don't fret. I'm not offended. Thanks fer tonight anyway."

And with this realization, Netto could deny it no further. Dekao was dead on. He was jealous. He may have had a chance with Tohru, had he not suppressed his long-bubbling adoration for him since they met, thinking Tohru could never reciprocate his feelings.

It was simultaneously cathartic and afflictive. He wanted to cry. Tohru was in the arms of another. A genius who could match pace with Tohru's intellect, wealthy and reputable, with a sturdy career. Netto had nothing to offer. Teruo was everything he couldn't be.

Torakichi made motions to assuage him, but a dark-skinned girl in a blue crop top and golden hoop earrings sprang in front of them and beat him to it.

"Yoo-hoo! You've found your love rival?"

"A-Anetta? When did you get here?"

Enzan's on-again, off-again girlfriend during the spells he wasn't dating Yaito wagged a finger. "I overheard some juicy deets when I went to pick up my order at Maha Ichiban today!"

Netto fell over in exasperation. Some friends! He couldn't confide in them for anything.

"Don't worry! Because your #1 Love Expert, Anetta, is here to help with your love crisis!"

Torakichi chewed on a toothpick, amused. This trip was turning out to be interesting after all.


	7. Chapter 7

The Place Where Light Reaches

Author's Note: Enjoy the story and R&R.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to or of the Rockman EXE series.

Pairings: One-sided Netto x Tohru, established Tohru x Teruo. Referenced Enzan x Yaito, Enzan x Anetta.

Summary:

After an accident, Hikari Raito and his NetNavi partner Trill find themselves reliving the cherished tale of his parents' love.

* * *

Chapter 7

Netto chafed anxiously. This was crazy. Nary a day to process his epiphany, and with Anetta's prying and Torakichi's insistence, he was reluctantly accompanying them to a taping of a popular television program she acquired tickets to from her part-time job as a secretary at DNN Studios. Expounding the infinite depths of love, Anetta was convinced he and Tohru were destined to be, and that this dating show would salve his beleaguered psyche.

As fiercely as he desired to share her idealism, it was hogwash suited to dreams. Fantasies where he grasped his enchantment for Tohru sooner. Illusions factoring out the boyfriend snatcher Teruo.

Who was he kidding? There was only one boyfriend snatcher here, and it wasn't Teruo.

Sadly, there was no arguing with the tenacious woman.

The three were seated high up in the bleachers in the studio audience, and Netto was morosely self-conscious of how he and Torakichi were the only males in a room full of romance-starved girls and spinsters. It didn't appear to vex Torakichi, who was entertained watching Netto squirm.

"Argh! Why did I let you talk me into this?" Netto yowled.

"Hey! Who's the expert here? Respect a lady when she commits to devising a strategy for you to deal with your love rival!" Anetta rebuked.

The manner she stressed "lady" reminded him of Yaito. Enzan's damsels were more similar than either of them cared to admit. The asocial charmer clearly had a type.

"Shh! It's startin'!"

The attendees quieted. Spotlights whirled about, converging on a raven-haired beauty in a green blouse at a table center stage. "Welcome to _Andou Romeda's Lucky Fortune_!"

Netto did a double take. He knew this fortune teller. In his grade school years, Romeda fell prey to an Asteroid, who twisted her benign prediction of a major event into a portent of oblivion. Had he and Meiru not interceded, Akihara would be a smoking crater.

"Introducing my co-host, the always exuberant Starman!"

Speak of the devil. The space-booted blond Navi cocked a finger gun on the screen behind her to the darling applause of all except Netto and Anetta.

The Net Saviour heard buzz of this down the wire. Although the vast majority of Asteroids were eradicated, and public memory of their existence wiped by Duo after his departure from Earth, there were recent incidents on the Net Police's radar of ex-Asteroid operators discovering backup data in their PETs of their deleted collaborators. Apparently reconstituted as blank slates, these reborn Asteroids – theorized by Netto's father to be naturally occurring phenomena on the network – had yet to exhibit the corrupt tendencies of their forebearers, but trepidation prevailed among law enforcement that the Asteroids popping up might relapse into villainy. A bleak, if not logical, prognosis, since Napalmman was the Net Police's sole recorded example of an Asteroid reforming his ways.

For Netto and Anetta, the scars penetrated deeper. Before the Asteroid menace, the original Starman, a Darkloid, had cornered Anetta and Enzan in the Ministry of Science to trash the Advanced PET II they were protecting, until Netto bounded into action and cleaved him in two on his Elec Sword.

Twice a baddie, with a third stab pending verdict. The odds didn't bode positively that Starman would diverge from his antecedents' notoriety.

"Kirakira Meteor!" Romeda's Navi commenced the first segment of the program, showering translucent prismatic stars upon the gallery.

Romeda opened the floor to her fans. "I wonder if those who came today have any problems with romance they would like to share."

"He doesn't notice me!"

"His brother is my ex!"

"He cares more about his car than he does me!"

Anetta and Torakichi prodded Netto. She knitted her brows, while he lightly elbowed him in the ribs.

Blood surged to Netto's cheeks. Torture. There was no other word for this. Around him, females in the audience were brazenly airing their dirty laundry on live TV. He fought the impetus to do the same. He respected Tohru enough not to be a homewrecker, but his crush was getting the best of him.

Eyes clamped shut, he blurted out, "He already has a boyfriend!"

A hush descended over the assembly. Everyone narrowed in on him, astounded. Even Anetta and Torakichi were confounded by his volume.

Across town, a pet-sitting Meiru was feeding Mariko-sensei's cat when she saw the broadcast. Seething, she lost it. "That Netto…I can't believe him!"

Elsewhere, in Aoki Makoto's university quarters, Raito and Trill were following along too, waiting on Kosuke's return with the cup noodles he promised for lunch. "Don't give up, Papa!"

Back in the studio, Romeda clasped her excessively ringed hands in intrigue. Capitalizing on the probable ratings boost, she flagged Netto down.

"Go, ya dope!" Torakichi shoved him.

Dozens of peepers hounded Netto as he plodded the stairs to join the host at her table, piqued. The cameras zoomed in.

"If you'd be so kind, Starman will tender our door prize to your Navi." She gestured to one of the cameras.

He plugged in.

Rockman alighted in DNN's cyberworld. The décor adhered to a galaxy motif befitting Romeda's line of work, assimilating a diverse assortment of nebulae, planetoids, and interstellar spacecrafts. A sprawling star chart served as the floor. He ran across his former adversary floating above the constellation Scorpius, the Scorpion, a similarly fitting locale, accounting their checkered history.

Predisposed to camaraderie and conferring second chances, not unlike his operator, he gave the Asteroid the benefit of the doubt. It was the sort of blind faith that accrued him such a queer bevy of foes he also regarded as allies. World Three, Dark Miyabi and Shadowman, Tesla and Magnetman, Yuriko and Needleman, to recount a few. Nonetheless, he treaded cautiously.

"Salutations! I'm Starman! You're our guest's Navi?"

"Yup. I'm Rockman!"

Starman called up a touchpad. Mellowly administering clicks, he transmitted the prize data to Netto's PET: admission to a swanky annual fashion junket. A reward selected in deference to the fair sex, and not his cup of tea. Something he could regift Meiru, if she ever got off her high horse.

The preamble clinched, Romeda inquired of her invitee, "Your name?"

"Hi-Hikari Netto!"

So much for anonymity. He scanned the rafters, and paused at Anetta and Torakichi miming unintelligible gestures. They mouthed gobbledygook, their coaching virtually useless.

 _Somebody kill me._

"So, Hikari Netto-kun, you said the guy you like already has a boyfriend?"

"Uh, that's correct…"

Unbeknownst to him, the individual he dreaded divulging his secret to most was tuned in as well.

Tohru was at his dad's, chowing down on take-out udon and curried gyoza, when a tizzy Iceman alerted him to Netto's baffling cameo during an episode of the chick programming he fancied. Iceman had strange tastes in TV shows, but Tohru guessed he should not have been surprised, considering his Navi was best buds with a Darkloid.

Netto echoed the affirmative, sending waves through the crowd and blindsiding Tohru.

"Is he aware of how you feel?"

Abashed to make eye contact with her, the brunette shook his head.

 _No way! He likes a_ guy _? A guy who is already taken! Could that mean –?_

"I haven't told him. This is kinda new for me."

Tohru banished the thought. It was preposterous. _No, what am I saying? Netto-kun would never like me like that!_

Romeda's nosiness emptied the floodgates. Yesterday's insecurities roared unimpeded, tightening Netto's chest.

Happily ever after only occurred in fairy tales. A stint on a fourth-rate televised snoozefest wasn't going to magically alter that. His longing for Tohru was a ridiculous delusion. Insignificant. Disgraceful. And worse, an obstacle. Every ounce of strength he summoned, each breath he devoted hoping they could be together, he endangered Tohru's happiness. Poisoned his hard-fought romance with his negativity.

He couldn't do it. He had no morally justifiable reason for intruding. It was pure selfishness.

He feared hurting Tohru most of all.

He deserved to be alone.

Outwardly, his countenance reflected nothing. Because that was what he was. Nothing.

Romeda pondered his dilemma.

Netto slouched in his chair. He didn't ascribe to this love fortune nonsense, yet even in his darkest hour, he entreated her validation and consultation. The vaccine her baloney alleged, however placebic, to palliate his anxieties.

"I'm not going to sugarcoat this," she appropriated what her sensei, Kazuko, would state. "Split them up!"

"Huh?"

"His boyfriend is rotten! A scoundrel! The heavenly bodies foretell it!"

 _Yep, it's definitely not me Netto-kun likes. Teruo-kun wouldn't harm a fly!_ Tohru relished the garlic in his dumplings.

"Hey, isn't that a tad extreme?" Netto eeped.

"You'll see. I perceive a great darkness skulking on the horizon!"

If the prophecy had originated from Kuroi Miyuki, he'd be inclined to heed her warning. But propped up against an accredited mystic like Miyuki-san, Romeda was a tabloid oracle belching generic doom and gloom, her forecasts flimsier than a horoscope.

Moving on, Romeda dynamically declared, "Starman, what could this week's lucky item be, hmm? Rimless glasses? A cute tail?"

"You may want to step back," her nova-lobbing co-anchor cautioned his visitor.

Rockman complied, according him a wide berth.

Starman flung a forward gash, creating a crescent beam. He pirouetted, enlarging it via an uppercut, then struck a lunging pose, whereupon the demilune whooshed through the onscreen title card, heralding the subsequent sketch. "Moon Dance!"

"A lucky item?" Netto seemed ultra stumped.

The astrology buff Navi imitated the adorable, confused expression off-camera, to which Rockman sniggered.

"Your operator is kinda weird."

"You get used to it."

Romeda elaborated, "Yes. Since ancient times, ordinary everyday articles have been propounded to be imbued with supernatural properties or spirits. Crystal balls, scrying mirrors, and tarot cards, for instance. Or the haunted suits of armour of Kingland and the tsukumogami of Japan. By communing with these artifacts and interpreting the signs they proffer, people divined the future. Ensured abundant harvests, unveiled the outcomes of relationships, and extrapolated cataclysms in nature."

The powwows a directionally inadept Dingo held asking his tomahawk for counsel locating Maha Ichiban's customers came to mind, and Netto justly grew skeptical. He shadowed Dingo amply enough, and could testify to how such augury failed almost universally, or at minimum, when exercised by amateurs.

"This week's lucky love item is a stuffed animal!"

In spite of her viewers' resoundingly energized reception to the proclamation, Netto did not know how much more of this flimflam he could take. It was a shtick. It had to be. What voodoo could a stuffed animal harbour to solve his conundrum with Tohru?

"Plush toys may be symbols for immaturity, but they mask a profounder message. They're there with us since our youth, escorting us through our arduous junctions," she sermonized to the rabble directly. "To a potential sweetie, this translates to humility and a willingness to embrace your inner child!"

It made even less sense now that he learned their significance.

"Onto love prayers!"

DNN's cyberworld dissolved to an approximation of the Milky Way.

Starman modified his arm into a bow, a shaft pre-nocked. Somersaulting midair, he discharged eight bolts in a three hundred sixty-degree stellar formation. "Star Arrow!"

Rockman was impressed.

"Everybody, it behooves me to say, it seems as though our chat is at its end," Romeda pronounced in closing. "If you yearn for his love, face the northern sky and make a wish on a star tonight at 8 p.m."

The mob of women clapped unanimously.

Anetta threw Netto a thumbs-up, deeming the inquest a success.

Torakichi stolidly canvassed the brouhaha.

Netto despaired, more confounded than when they arrived. If only loving Tohru were as effortless as wishing upon a forlorn star.


	8. Chapter 8

The Place Where Light Reaches

Author's Note: Enjoy the story and R&R.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to or of the Rockman EXE series.

Pairings: One-sided Netto x Tohru, established Tohru x Teruo. Referenced unrequited Dekao x Meiru.

Summary:

After an accident, Hikari Raito and his NetNavi partner Trill find themselves reliving the cherished tale of his parents' love.

Chapter 8

* * *

Netto spun around in his chair, his head in the clouds. Hot on the heels of his walk-on role on TV two days ago, Anetta had urged him to follow Andou Romeda's advice, while Torakichi imparted some scholarly wisdom prior to splitting from Akihara Town to sally back to Akindo City.

"You'll get him fer sure. Be immovable like a mountain," he preached.

Their last snippets of encouragement dangled uncertainly. Hopes beautiful to behold, but dangerous to flirt, as the blowback could be catastrophic. Everybody seemed to have disparate methodologies, but nobody submitted a feasible fix. There was no exit strategy. It was one of those enigmas where he'd have to unearth a resolution on his own.

He thought about Tohru more than ever. The man occupied his deductions when awake. Inhabited his idealizations when he slept. He dissected every minuscule detail of their years together, reliving and cataloguing each merry gem, font of sadness, and zany adventure. No minor element unturned. Punctilious in his remembrances. Deconstructing. Obsessing.

Suddenly, he became painfully sympathetic to Dekao's undying and unrewarded enthrallment towards Meiru. Was this how it felt? To be so near in proximity to the person you cherished, yet never afforded a kiss? Enamoured with a person who could not possibly be yours?

Whereas Netto repressed his romantic impulses, Dekao advertised his intentions plainly; Meiru shrugged off his flattery anyways. Would Tohru refuse him, if he risked a plea? Was he cursed to live out his miserable existence until he hit decrepitude, watching Tohru be happy with someone else?

No. He celebrated Tohru's happiness. The night after Romeda's show, against his instincts and disbelief, he engaged the murky, esoteric empyrean at 8 p.m. sharp and wished with staunchest sincerity upon a wicked, indifferent star that Tohru attain his storybook ending.

Tohru was entitled to the world. On Teruo's lanky arm, that attitude represented a concrete, dynastic legacy. If the cost of that felicity was that he himself would fade, amen! Tohru's contentment justified the tribulation. He could take it. For his beloved, he could learn to suffer the grief.

"Netto-kun, are you okay?" Rockman queried.

"Not one bit, Rockman."

Two officials marched into Net Police HQ's briefing room, and Netto snapped up to meet them.

Combining refinement and privilege with a sprinkle of faux condescension, Amerope's ace Net Saviour and IPC's vice president, Ijuuin Enzan, rocked his prototypical red blazer, camo pants, and white on black hairdo, which Netto humorously correlated to an eggshell.

The taller, Sharo's laser-focused lieutenant, Laika, exhibited his green mop and the standard-issue regimentals of his motherland, dripping decorum.

Lining up their agendas to get down to business, they were distracted by a peculiar stowaway lodged under Netto's armpit.

"What is that?" Enzan roasted the stuffed alligator.

"This week's lucky love item," the Japanese rep retorted impassively.

"You're not the type to put stock in that junk," Laika specified.

"Ask Enzan! Anetta made me do it!"

"Anetta?"

" _Never mind_. So, why the emergency beeps? Must be serious if the Net Police had you fly over."

"Affirmative. The situation is dire and our priority is enacting immediate countermeasures."

"Laika and I have been on a case. The prison break at the supermax in Amerope last month. Do you know the incident I am referring to?"

"Yes, Manabe-san filled us in on it," Rockman answered for Netto. "A malfunction in the jail cells' systems provided the smokescreen, and the criminals escaped with the Professor. Commissioner Kifune authorized a thorough investigation. The Net Police didn't dig up any leads."

"That's because this was no sloppy job. Whoever set the Professor free funnelled substantial resources into the venture and covering their tracks."

Blues and Searchman projected themselves above their masters' shoulders.

"Enzan-sama."

"Laika-sama."

The Navis exchanged obligatory greetings with Rockman.

"Searchman's reconnaissance yielded invaluable information. We traced the perpetrator…to a network here in Japan."

"In Japan?"

"The origin of the interfering signal was an electromagnetic pulse sent from Japan, pinged off a proxy server in Amerope."

"How did you –?"

"Raoul fed us the underground intel."

 _Hey brother!_ Netto restrained an inappropriate guffaw imagining Enzan and Raoul undercover in their Afro wigs.

"Filtering the digital signature through IPC's databank, we pinpointed the IP address of the machine linked to the remote server," Blues detailed.

"Have a look at this, Netto. Footage Raoul obtained of the radio tower in Amerope at the moment of the cyberattack." Enzan flipped on a viewscreen.

The monitor displayed an orange Navi, wielding electrodes instead of hands, frying the relay.

"Is that – isn't that Sparkman?"

"In light of the deletions of the Darkloid Sparkman and his Zoanoroid counterpart, the process of elimination denotes this is the work of an Asteroid," Searchman reported.

"An Asteroid among the recent revivals," Laika recapitulated the communiqué.

"It's happening."

"Like the Net Police feared."

"Based on the evidence, we've secured a warrant to take Sparkman's suspected operator, Jomon Teruo, into custody"

"Jomon Teruo!" Netto and Rockman screeched.

"He is the heir apparent to Jomon Electric."

"He's Tohru-kun's boyfriend!"

"What?"

"He's Hikawa's –?"

The stunning development was punctuated by Netto's PET ringing. Resetting his jaw, he responded. It was his distraught employer, Aoki Makoto.

"Oneesan? What's wrong?"

"We're in trouble, Netto-kun! Someone robbed my lab yesterday night! Stole the Copyroid we were experimenting on!"

"The Copyroid!"

Rockman leapt in consternation. "Netto-kun! It has to be _him_! Remember when you and Tohru-kun got coffee?"

"Now that you mention it, Teruo did express a dubious interest in our research. Gah! Romeda-san was right!" He smacked himself, realizing the phony psychic's prediction had come to fruition. "The jerk _is_ shady!"

His vilification of Teruo abruptly gained legitimate weight.

And then raw terror sank in.

Netto took off running, trampling his toy reptile.

"Where are you going, Netto?" Enzan demanded.

"Tohru-kun isn't safe!"

…

Confronting Tohru with Teruo's crimes would be a complicated task, but catching Tohru unharmed ameliorated Netto's unease. He'd raced onto the Hikawas' porch, just as his friend disembarked and locked the entrance. The enormity of the house forever flummoxed him. Soaring walls, fifty-plus windows, a copse fencing the perimeter, and vaulted gambrel roofs. Why did a widower and his son need such a big den between the two of them?

"Hiya, Netto-kun. I'm going to Maha Ichiban. Come with me?"

"For once, no time!" He nabbed his wrist. "We have to hide you, pronto!"

"Hide me? What are you talking about?"

"It's that Teruo of yours! The Net Police are arresting him!"

"What? Why?"

"He's the culprit who freed the Professor from prison! And he burglarized Akihara University! The Copyroid that Oneesan and I engineered is missing!"

"That's insane."

"It's the truth!"

The accusations were outrageous. If not for Netto's stern carriage, Tohru half-expected Teruo to jump out the shrubs and congratulate Netto on their efficacious gag. "It's false is what it is! There must be some misunderstanding!"

"Tohru-kun, listen to me! Teruo is bad news! You have to dump him!"

"I knew it! You lied! You don't approve of me dating him!"

"It's not that! I cou–!"

"How could you say such appalling things? When you like a guy too! I saw you admit it on TV!"

"That, that was –!"

"Why can't you accept it?"

Netto's mouth was parched.

"Why can't you accept I'm with Teruo-kun?"

"Because I love you!"

That shut Tohru up.

Tears welled in Netto's eyes. "Be-because I love you."

They both trembled at the confession.

"The guy you like. The one you said was already taken…"

"It's you. It's always been you."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"You were with him. You were happy. I didn't want to intrude and ruin the life you built."

Touched by his fidelity, Tohru softened.

"Even though I'm not worthy of your love, even though I'll never be able to give you the things he can, that doesn't change the fact that I will protect you, Tohru-kun! No matter what! You may hate me for it, but there's no avoiding it anymore!"

 _I don't hate you._ Verbalizing the reaction proved unachievable.

"I love you," Netto tried afresh in vain.

"I have to go speak to Teruo-kun."

"Pl-please don't!"

Yet he remained deaf to his begging. Tohru pushed past him, torn by weakness – how he could do nothing to spare Netto the inescapable, ineffable hurt. Heaping scorn upon himself for breaking him.

 _I'm sorry._

…

Tohru pothered in the elevator as he ascended to the sixty-fifth floor of Jomon Electric, where top brass' offices were based.

 _It's not true. It's not true,_ he recited. _Netto-kun's mistaken!_

In his jealous haze, Netto wasn't thinking straight. He was acting out. That had to be it.

Then again, when was Netto ever thinking straight?

He located Teruo immersed among the gizmos in his lab. Untidy as a hoarder, blueprints and tools lay disorderly, necessitating Tohru dance around the innumerable hazards to his feet. His grease monkey boyfriend was hunched over a project, welding. Blue embers licked the metal as he mended a garish scar begriming its surface.

"Teruo-kun!" he yelled over the torch.

"Yo, Tohru-chan!" Teruo jerked his helmet up.

He was tinkering with a robot. A Copyroid.

 _No…_

"What have you done?"

"My oh my, that Hikari Netto did a number on you, didn't he?" Teruo patted the Copyroid. "I rewired it. Optimized its destructive capability. Rebooted it without those pesky inhibitors. No safety parameters. I've accomplished what Aoki Makoto was afraid to do."

The loss of the Jomon family successor's stutter unnerved him. Was it all a ploy?

"Forgive me, Tohru-chan. I can't allow you to interfere," he muttered token remorse. "Captain, if you please."

Before Tohru sprinted, a couple of thugs jumped him, laced his wrists, and confiscated his PET.

"Careful, Captain. Not so rough."

The degenerate who Teruo pegged "Captain" was a tubby swindler. Greying, with bilaterally trimmed stubble and nauseatingly lengthy nose hairs, clothed in suspenders and gumboots, a dolphin tattoo on his deltoid. His teammate wore pigtails, a periwinkle brimmed black bolero, polka dot dress, bloomers, mismatched striped leggings, and clown themed jewelry.

"Kurohige and Chirol!"

Revoltingly, the petty crooks from Beyondard could not neutralize the sea lion stench that pervaded them. They'd been stranded on Earth since the Zoanoroid conflict terminated, thrust into this dimension when a rogue grenade planted by Dark Kirisaki derailed their flight plans and sent them bowling across a spatial fissure. Woefully for everyone else, they were as sleazy and troublesome here as they were on the other side. When they weren't dining and dashing, they were torpedoing the city and committing inadvertently eco-friendly felonies.

"I should've listened to Netto-kun…" Tohru stewed. " _You_ released the Professor."

"Ding ding ding!" Teruo joshed.

"Stop this!"

"Can't."

"Why not? Why are you doing this, Teruo-kun?"

"Gramps is holding out on me. Reassessing my status in his will. He dissed robotics and threatened to sever my funding, the geezer! When I caught wind on an Undernet BBS that these lowlife goons were planning to bust out the Professor, I extended my services. In exchange, the Professor lends me his soldiers. It's a hostile takeover, baby!"

"After everything we've been through! It was a lie?"

"Never. I _do_ love you. Gonna give you the world, Tohru-chan. Picture it. Us, unlimited coin, and a controlling interest in the organization!"

"You can walk away! I'll speak to the Net Police! We can hammer out a plea bargain!"

"Aww, how swell of you to defend me. When this is over, you and I are due for a heckuva holiday. Hmm? The Southern Isles?"

 _This is my fault._

"You sit tight while Kurohige, Chirol, and I empty the coffers."


	9. Chapter 9

The Place Where Light Reaches

Author's Note: Ice Soul was an exclusive Soul Unison originally slated to appear in the anime, as revealed alongside concept art in the _Rockman EXE Official Complete Works_ guide book. Enjoy the story and R&R.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to or of the Rockman EXE series.

Pairings: Pre-slash Netto x Tohru, ended Tohru x Teruo.

Summary:

After an accident, Hikari Raito and his NetNavi partner Trill find themselves reliving the cherished tale of his parents' love.

* * *

Chapter 9

Jomon Electric's cyberworld was a minefield of active explosions. From sprinkler override to central heating, Rockman engaged Asteroid Sparkman, warding off the maniac's charged blitz, sword to prong. Over the rancour of their conflict, their operators clashed via communication windows.

"You ain't gonna win! No siree!" Teruo taunted, priggishly unhinged after having been liberated of his tiresome fake speech impediment and goody two-shoes public persona.

The duplicitous jerk! He really was the spoiled rich kid Netto thought!

"Teruo! Give back Tohru-kun!"

"Heh heh! No dice, loser! Winning against you is all that counts! Tohru-chan belongs to _me_!"

Netto couldn't waste any more time. He had to end their showdown asap. Teruo and his accomplices had gone the divide and conquer route. While Sparkman and Rockman jousted, Beast Viruses were overflowing out Jomon's servers onto Internet City. Blues, Searchman, and a squad of Police Navis acted as a stopgap, running pest control. However, unanticipated obstruction by Captain Kurohige, Chirol, and the _Cutman Brothers_ , of all nuisances, kept Enzan and Laika on their toes.

"Onward, RoiHawks!" the eldest Cutman, Jiro, commanded a kettle of raptors to dive.

"Ehahahahahaha!" Chirol lapped up their corps' shredding of the resistance. "They can't hold a candle to us!"

Annexing Chairman Jomon's desk, the Professor cackled, dabbing his nigiri sushi in soy sauce. "That's it! Go forth and spread fear and confusion!"

Tohru discreetly sawed a letter opener across the ropes binding his wrists. The Professor crowing, Teruo duking it out with Netto, and Kurohige and Chirol harassing the Net Police, the bad guys neglected to supervise their captive. Now was Tohru's opportunity to scram!

Who knew Iceman's appreciation for daytime mystery serials would come in this handy?

"Bourgeois slime, I'm gonna enjoy pixelating that disrespectful runt of yours!" Teruo spat.

"Buh-bye!" Sparkman reared to impale Rockman, the shrimp smashed beneath his circular hoof.

"Rockman!" Netto screamed.

"Battle Chip, Area Steal! Slot-in!"

Before the attack connected, Iceman teleported in and zipped Rockman and himself out of danger, substituting a snowman. When punctured, it ruptured and buried Sparkman under an avalanche of snow.

"YAAARRRGGG!"

"Tohru-kun!" Netto cheered, relieved he and his Navi slipped away uninjured.

Teruo discovered his boyfriend had gone AWOL. _The roof!_

"Y-you're siding with him, Tohru-chan?" Teruo barked into his PET, ramming an emergency exit and scaling the stairwell.

Sensibly, Tohru barricaded the door.

"You can stop calling me that! We're through! I won't let anyone lay a finger on those I care about!"

Netto almost bawled at Tohru going white knight on him.

"If that's your choice…" Teruo growled, sent over the edge. "Sparkman! Delete Iceman with extreme prejudice!"

"With gusto!" He spaded the slush, collecting lightning between his conductors. "Spark Wave!"

Retaliating, Iceman kicked an Ice Cube, but Sparkman's storm shattered it, zapping the pipsqueak.

"Iceman!"

Neither Teruo nor Sparkman abided by restraint. Divorced of commitment, they cut loose, exactly as Teruo stipulated, with "extreme prejudice."

Iceman hiked his mittens to divert from the shaking in his boots. His Freeze Bombs and Tohru's Bubble Shot were doing squat, disregarded in the sadist's onslaught.

Tainted by Tohru's betrayal, Teruo's genuine feelings distorted, and he emerged more ruthless.

Rockman sheltered Iceman.

If Sparkman had lips, he'd be sneering. "What a beautiful friendship! Shame this is the end of the line for you trash! Spark Ball!"

Homing mines amassed, clinked, and detonated. Black smoke rippled.

"Ha! Good riddance!"

Incandescent rays sliced the darkness.

Emblems glowing, their hearts harmonized. Iceman's apparel overlaid Rockman, forming orange and teal piping. Fluff insulated his helmet.

"Is that –?" Netto whooped.

"Soul Unison! Ice Soul!" Rockman cried.

Teruo and Sparkman flinched.

"Soul Unison?"

"Ice Soul?"

"Get set! This is the result of my and Tohru-kun's connection: Ice Soul!"

 _My and Netto-kun's connection…_

"You can knock me down. You can hoard him to yourself. But you won't win. We're inseparable! Undefeatable! It's been that way since we were kids! Me and Tohru-kun! Rockman and Iceman! The original Elec Brothers!"

 _That's true! Rockman's first Style Change combination was with Iceman!_ Tohru recalled, his heart rate increasing.

Stretching his new duds, Rockman vowed, "Our strength has evolved! We're taking you down! Ready, Iceman?"

"Right behind you, desu!"

Each lifted an arm and blew an arctic tempest.

"Double –!"

"Blizzard!"

Snowballs pelleted Sparkman, freezing his legs to the arena. The squall grew so cold that they fractured, toppling him.

Pounding the door, an infuriated Teruo retraced the stairs and leaned on his fallback, loading his Navi into the Copyroid. No further option, as the Net Police rounded up all the Dimensional Chips following the Duo scare.

"Sparkman, Transmission!"

Demolishing an avenue up to the roof, the substantialized Asteroid, healed of his dismemberment, intimidatingly advanced on Tohru. Teruo rode his hex nut.

"Come with me, Tohru-chan, and I'll forgive you," Teruo enticed.

"I'd sooner die!"

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Be careful what you wish for."

Netto did not hesitate. "Meijin-san, hurry! A Dimensional Area, please!"

"No need for formalities!"

The gradated Dimensional Area dome enveloped the Jomon building.

"Synchro Chip, slot-in! Cross Fusion!"

Deploying his Jet Vernier, R-Rockman flew sixty-five levels' distance, landing beside Tohru.

"Netto-kun!"

"Tohru-kun, hide!"

"This'll be even more gratifying!" Teruo hopped off. "Kill him, Sparkman!"

As R-Rockman and Sparkman tangled, Blues and Searchman's contingent was gaining ground in Internet City, corralling the Beast Viruses.

"Fishsticks! All hands on deck, Chirol!"

"Aye aye, sir!" She saluted.

"By your command, Captain Kurohige!" Diveman gnawed his pipe. "A naval evacuation it is, de aru!"

Circusman honked his rubbery nose. "Ooooo!"

Plugging out their Navis, the pirates abandoned ship, leaving the Cutman siblings flailing.

"H-hey! Don't bail!" Jiro blamed the thieves.

"Now what do we do, bu?" Goro squealed.

Kurohige and Chirol flicked the chips the Professor supplied into their Link Gates. "Synchro Chip, slot-in! Cross Fusion!"

R-Diveman and R-Circusman joined Sparkman, outnumbering the competition.

"Enzan, skip the small fry! The Police Navis will finish them! Our objective is those two!"

"Understood. Three on three. Let's even the odds."

Also plugging out and Cross Fusing, Enzan and Laika lured Kurohige and Chirol far from Netto.

"Scope Gun!"

Retracting his mustache into his submarine hull, R-Diveman shunted the barrage, then swung his clamp-shaped hook. When that floundered, he unsealed his bow compartment, chucking a depth charge. "Dive Bomb!"

R-Circusman cracked her ringmaster's whip, charging a lion through a halo of flame. "Fire Ring!"

R-Blues hacked it down the middle with his sword, pausing to verify his ally's fettle. Laika had scattered Search Grenades, camouflaging to duck Kurohige's Smart Missiles.

"Where are you looking?" Chirol jabbed. "Happy Clap!"

Humongous clown gloves whammed together, squishing him.

Receiving a brutal trouncing, R-Rockman was faring no better.

Teruo threw caution to the wind. Resorting to cheating, he spammed Extra Codes to push Sparkman to the limit, mashing his PET like his life depended on it. "Take this! And this! And this! Heh heh heh!"

Netto backpedalled. His enemy instantaneously closed the gap.

"Make Shadow!" Sparkman generated a dazzling flash, animating R-Rockman's shadow.

The duplicate acquired definition, and equipped a Wide Blade. It ambushed its basis, diverting Netto's concentration.

"Battle Chip! Tank Cannon!"

 _POW!_

Sparkman tossed himself in the turret's range, sloughing off the shell. The baleful clone snuck in, thrashing R-Rockman diagonally.

"No! Netto-kun!" Tohru shrieked.

It should have been lethal, but Sparkman faltered, supporting his deteriorating frame on the stabbing tines of his electrodes.

R-Rockman's replica hobbled, sinking beneath the cement.

"It's the Extra Codes, Netto-kun! They're degrading his data!" Rockman notified.

"Not much of a battler, are you, Teruo?" Netto provoked.

"Garbage!" Sparkman was literally falling apart. "You may excel at repairing machines, but you sure stink at Navi operation!"

"Sue me! I'm a robot specialist, not a NetBattler!"

Rockman mocked, "Arguing? Trust between operator and Navi is key!"

"You're such a hot shot! Why don't you fix this useless robot body?"

"I oughta sell you for scrap!"

"Netto-kun, quick! While they are fighting!"

"Battle Chip! Fumikomizan!" He hurtled by, clipping the Asteroid's trunk.

"Bwaaaaaa!"

The Copyroid imploded, dragging Sparkman with it.

Unbelieving, Teruo stumbled to his knees and witnessed his skillfully manufactured plot unravel at the seams.

"Gloom Cage!" R-Circusman executed her strongest move, snaring R-Blues under a tent.

Inside, she pummelled him mercilessly. To the average observer, victory was hers. The canvas bulged and swayed, her prisoner brawling to free himself.

Joke was on her. Enzan had swapped out a Kawarimi to feint the marquee's plunge. The big top's stilts and tarp merely confined the doll, his surrogate bearing the impacts of her slapping. When she ascertained the deception, R-Blues barged in, butting the pierrot over her platform shoes.

"Battle Chip! Variable Sword!"

Staggering out the cranny he ripped in her tent, she thumped R-Diveman's aft.

"This is less than encouraging," Kurohige confessed.

Chirol levied a blunter assessment: "We're super screwed!"

Confirming how desperate their straits were, R-Searchman invoked a recon drone, calibrating its lens and solar panels to a nonfatal intensity. "Satellite Ray!"

The sputnik expelled a photon stream.

 _PFOOM!_

"Eeeeeeeeeeeee!" Kurohige and Chirol blasted off again, straight into the Dimensional Area's canopy as it dissipated.

Ejecting the Ice Soul chip, Netto paraded up to a defeated Teruo. "How's that, you creep? This is the proof of Rockman and Iceman's bond!"

"Netto-kun…" Rockman scratched his chin. Was his operator honestly gloating?

"That's not all it's proof of!" Usually, Tohru would be as remonstrative. Not today.

Netto made a perplexed face, and he became triply perplexed when Tohru kissed him unprompted. Unlike his kiss with Torakichi, there was an enunciated glimmer. An illuminating warmth.

Enzan hardly subdued a squeak. Teruo scraped his tongue. Laika coughed.

"Tohru-kun, w-why'd you do that?" Netto's blush burned.

A shrill, violent gale impinged. The Professor was firing up his getaway chopper.

"Crap! We forgot the Professor!"

He wasn't the only one. The Cutman Brothers were still on the loose.

Ironically, having friends in high places wasn't necessarily an automatic plus. Here, it was a liability.

Police Navis besieged the quintet's fortification in Net City.

"Surrender peacefully! Or we will use deadly force!"

"Grrr! Curse that Hikari Netto and Rockman! We won't go down so easily! On three, we deliver a surprise chopping to Hikari Netto and his cronies! Agreed?"

"You're a genius, Jiro-anichan!"

"With this, our fallen brother Taro will finally be avenged!" the stylish, fringed juvenile, Saburo, lauded.

"On three! One, two, THREE!"

" _Chokin_! Cutman Brothers, GO!" The five performed their motto. "Cutman Brothers BOOMERANG!"

Their Cut Boomerangs merged, forging an immense Rolling Cutter which pinwheeled toward the sector in the cyberworld that roughly corresponded to the Net Saviours' coordinates in the real world.

Naturally, these being the Cutman Brothers, they fudged the accuracy, and accidentally disabled the Professor's copter just as it sailed airborne.

The engine sputtered. The vehicle gyrated on an angle. Valuing his survival, the Professor donned a parachute and vacated the spiralling bird. Conveniently, into the aluminum cuffs of the cops below.

Laika assigned Searchman to the driverless cockpit. The sniper piloted the impaired aircraft to a semi-smooth halt, posting it astride the helipad of a separate commercial compound.

"Oops…" Jiro, Saburo, Shiro, Goro, and Rokuro shared a "staring into the camera" moment, mouths hanging open.

Patrollers surrounded them.

Utterly beat, the family resigned. They'd been played for suckers yet again, hopefully for the last time, and raised their scissor fingers.

Inspector Manabe and a cordon of officers in tactical gear buzz-sawed through Tohru's blockade.

"Jomon Teruo! You've been caught in the act! You and your associates are under arrest!" She presented her badge.


	10. Chapter 10

The Place Where Light Reaches

Author's Note: Enjoy the story and R&R.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to or of the Rockman EXE series.

Pairings: Developing Netto x Tohru (past), established Netto x Tohru (future), one-sided Meiru x Netto.

Summary:

After an accident, Hikari Raito and his NetNavi partner Trill find themselves reliving the cherished tale of his parents' love.

* * *

Chapter 10

Netto winced as the nurse bandaged him up. Nothing too severe: a scrape here, a dislocation there. Sparkman may have been vicious, but Teruo's operating hampered his ability to deal a decisive blow. Or, that's how Netto reconstructed the battle after the fact, when he wasn't second guessing how every misstep might cost him an arm or a leg.

Tohru had severed ties with the Jomon family black sheep. Tohru was his again!

Was he? Was he ever? What was that kiss?

Netto recognized he was unduly boastful.

 _Maybe it was just a friendly thanks. Gay guys, they kiss their friends all the time, don't they?_

Though he intended to ask Rockman that very question, it stayed glued inside his head.

Sinking lower on his pillow, Netto touched his lips, trying to immortalize each slow, grinding moment which led to that beatific consequence. The softness felt vivid, yet at the same time, distant and unreal.

Hikawa Tohru kissed him! _Him_! Curiously loveless Hikari Netto!

He granted himself permission to gag. Tohru kissed that slimeball Teruo with those same lips of his! Blech!

That gross detail notwithstanding, part of him desperately hoped it wasn't a one-off occurrence.

 _Tohru-kun said this chip is not only proof of Rockman and Iceman's bond…_ Netto contemplated the Ice Soul chip. _Does that mean he wants to be my boyfriend?_

 _Dun be a moron!_ the devil on his shoulder admonished.

…Why did his inner voice sound like Torakichi all of a sudden?

Whoever's mouth it came from, the objection held merit. Tohru wouldn't be around indefinitely. He had his education to wrap up overseas, and even then, Netto might never lay eyes on him moving forward.

Damn. He made himself sad again.

"Nice chip you got there! Is it rare?"

"Ta-Tamako-san?"

The tough-as-nails gift shop owner of the Urakawa Inn put him in a headlock ("Metal Fist!"). "Been forever, Netto! Look at you! All grown up! The heck happened to you?"

"Occupational hazard. Net Saviour-ing isn't exactly a risk-free profession," he complained. "And you? This is a ways out for you, isn't it?"

"I'm visiting my nephew, Mamoru. That's him over there. He going in for surgery today."

An almond-eyed teenager in yellow pajamas riding a wheelchair talked animatedly with his caregivers.

"How sick is he? He doesn't seem ill."

"It ebbs and flows," she stated glumly. "Because of his weak heart, he's been in and out of ICUs his whole life."

"Wow, that's rough."

"Hey, why don't we NetBattle? Mamoru would love that!"

"You sure you don't mean _you'd_ love that?"

"Is there a difference? Take out your PET!"

"Just don't pop up outta my bento like you did when we met!"

"Be warned: I won't go easy on you!"

Tamako wheeled Mamoru over. His aunt introduced him to Netto, who introduced Rockman to Mamoru.

"Let's fight!" Tamako challenged publicly. "Plug-in, Metalman! Transmission!"

"Plug-in, Rockman EXE! Transmission!"

"What have I gotten myself into?" Tohru mused aloud to Enzan and Laika in the doorway, glad Netto hadn't suffered any lasting _physical_ damage. "I shouldn't have kissed him. I had no right."

"You'll be fine. Netto is Netto. He'll pull through in the end," Laika surmised.

Netto and Tamako jumped onto the bed, drawing the attention of confused patients.

"Not on the bed! Not on the bed! This is a hospital!" a doctor shooed them down.

Enzan lacked his confidence. "You were saying, Laika?"

…

Hours later, once the hospital discharged him, Netto related his goodbyes to Enzan, Laika, and (awkwardly) Tohru before turning in.

Meiru was outside. She'd heard about the Net Police's raid on Jomon Electric on DNN, and welcomed Netto home with the conventional glomp.

"I thought we weren't speaking."

"Shut up and hug me, Netto!"

They stood in silence on the porch for several minutes until Meiru released him.

"So, you and Tohru-kun…You never said you liked him or anything, but I –"

"Tohru-kun kissed me," Netto cut her off, the flood of emotions boiling over.

"He did?" Her mouth froze agape. "Did you kiss him back? Are you two becoming a couple?"

"I don't know! Meiru-chan, it's long distance! You've seen how it is with Yaito-chan and Enzan!"

"Yeah, it's no picnic."

Again, silence.

"Do you love him?"

Netto blushed. She was reading him like a book. Even if he hid his feelings, it wouldn't take long for her to pry a confession out of him. Therefore, he ceased hiding.

"Yes. I love him."

"Have you any idea why I was upset?"

"Two dudes, one intolerant woman. What's the big mystery?"

"Idiot, I've been crushing on you almost since kindergarten!"

Rockman gasped, dumb and dumbfounded. Roll shushed him.

"Meiru-chan, not you too…"

"Afraid so."

"Augh!" He buried his head between his knees. "Curse this handsome face!"

"It's okay. I should have caught on sooner. You haven't really prioritized finding 'that special someone.' Now, I understand why. Deep down, you were holding out for him."

"I'm sorry I couldn't be the man you waited for, Meiru-chan."

"We'll always be friends, Netto. And don't think that just because I'm signing you over to Tohru-kun, you're rid of me! I'm absolutely gonna be the snoopy girl who meddles in your relationship! For starters, you march your butt straight over to Tohru-kun's and convince him not to fly back to Amerope! Or anywhere else for that matter!"

"Don't joke, Meiru-chan! I'm not preventing him from pursuing his dreams! Not to mention, I'm exhausted! An Asteroid beat me around, my best friends both played air hockey with my heart, and I'm ready to go to bed!"

"You do realize his dream is _you_ , don't you?"

Haruka hit pause. Adult or not, her darling boy wouldn't skip a meal on her watch. "Netto! Dinner! It's your favourite!"

"Oooh! Curry!" His bones rejuvenated.

Their reconciliation sealed, the preserver of justice and his neighbour retired to the table to partake of Haruka's fragrant cooking.

…

Meanwhile, in the future…

Dr. Wily slurped his pasta across from Netto and Tohru. Via Detective Misaki, the former had contacted Wily's daughter Yuriko, who arranged this confab at the café on Main Street. Supposedly, the sleepless parents sought to enlist him and his expertise locating their missing child.

Wily was being drafted. Fortunately, Netto didn't have the Ameropan military personnel Col. Barrel dispatched to compel Wily's cooperation, providing the monocled self-dubbed "evil genius scientist" considerable leverage in the negotiations.

"This is above my pay grade. No one has a firmer grasp on time travel than you, Wily," Netto conveyed without a hint of hubris.

"What do you know thus far?" Wily wiped his hobo beard on a napkin.

"The Net Police's investigation revealed Jomon Teruo hired Clockman in jail to eliminate me and Rockman."

Tohru shrank guiltily. Contrary to Netto's indignation when the specifics reached him – something along the lines of "He's still after me after all these years! That creep never changes! I can't believe you ever dated him!" – his husband made an effort not to lose his cool in front of Wily.

They couldn't afford to screw this up.

"Buy me another plate of spaghetti carbonara, and I'll help you."

"Spaghetti? That's it?"

Tohru stepped on his foot.

"Owowow! On it, on it! Right away! Waitress, another order of spaghetti carbonara, please!"

Netto's PET vibrated.

"Netto-kun? Netto-kun?"

The image appeared grainy, and the audio slightly degraded, but there could be no doubt: The caller was Aoki Makoto, continuing her long tradition of delivering major news.

"Oneesan?"

"Thank goodness it worked!" she hurrahed.

"The signal's bad, Oneesan. Can I call you back?"

"No! Don't hang up! What you're seeing is probably a message from the past!" Wily warned.

"EHHHH? Oneesan, you're calling from the past?"

"I am. I've tweaked your son's PET transceiver to align with the tachyonic measurements I conducted the night Raito-kun arrived from the future."

"R-Raito? He –! He's with you? You've been looking after him this entire time?"

"Yes, he's safe and healthy, but he misses you."

"Tell him," Tohru shouted into the screen, "Tell him we miss him very much!"

"This is most auspicious." The criminal mastermind forked bacon bits.

"What is?"

"Since we've established a direct line of communication, it may now be possible to return your son to our period."

"It is?"

"If you have a method how, don't keep us in suspense, Wily!"

"By locking on to the Synchronizer's unique dimensional pattern, we could formulate a link between Raito's PET in the past and the Fossa Ambience gate to Beyondard in our present day as a beacon of sorts. However, as with Clockman, a sizable power source would be required on the time traveller's part."

"Like Cross Fusion!"

"Cross Fusion?"

"Raito took my Synchro Chip with him when he went into the Past Tunnel! Oneesan, does Raito still have it?"

"He does."

"If Raito Cross Fuses with Trill, that should generate a strong enough energy surge!" Netto tapped his fist to his palm.

"Using Spectrum, we convert and transfer his data through the Past Tunnel, reassembling it here," Wily finished explaining.

"But can Raicchi and Trill Cross Fuse? Doesn't his Synchro Rate have to be exceptionally high? In the upper nineties?" Tohru worried.

"Humph! Whose offspring is he? They can totally do it!" Netto bragged proudly.

"I can reproduce a small-scale Spectrum apparatus at my lab on Onibi Island."

"And I'll inform and prep Raito-kun on my end!" Makoto swore.

Netto folded his hands over Tohru's. "We're getting him back!"

"Raicchi's coming home!"

" _After_ I eat my spaghetti!"

The dads grumbled.


	11. Chapter 11

The Place Where Light Reaches

Author's Note: Well, we've reached the end of this fic, nearly two decades in the making. I'd personally like to thank everyone for reading. Side stories in my TPWLR-verse will continue, and a follow-up is not off the table. Enjoy the story and R&R.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to or of the Rockman EXE series.

Pairings: Developing Netto x Tohru (past), established Netto x Tohru (future). Referenced one-sided Meiru x Netto, one-sided Jasmine x Netto, one-sided Pride x Netto.

Summary:

After an accident, Hikari Raito and his NetNavi partner Trill find themselves reliving the cherished tale of his parents' love.

* * *

Chapter 11

Netto reclined on his balcony. Another four days had come and gone. Tonight, he would end it. He'd called Tohru to sleep over, and would close the book on whatever was going on between them once and for all. Regardless of how much he hated Tohru leaving again, he couldn't bear dragging him down any longer.

Tohru walked to Netto's house from the ice rink, skates and skate guards hanging off his violin case. He was worse for wear, having dove into his music and ice skating routine to shirk the situation. He hadn't flubbed the "Tohru Special" during practice in years, yet lately, Iceman had to check on him frequently to ensure he didn't injure himself in a fall.

Likewise, Tohru was here to end it. He braced as Haruka invited him in.

But the instant Netto and Tohru's gazes intersected on the balcony beneath the stars, their lips found each other's, tearful relief carried through the intimacy.

"I've decided," Tohru whispered into the kiss. "I'm staying."

Netto knotted his tongue.

"You were right about him. About Teruo-kun. I can't go back there. It's where he and I first clicked."

"I'm not letting you do that."

Tohru slackened, disappointed.

"Live your life. Don't upend it because I noticed my love for you too late."

"Teruo-kun was crooked to begin with. You merely brought it out of him."

"It's more than that. I don't want you throwing away all your hard work in Amerope and losing opportunities because of me."

"Netto-kun, I have to tell you something. The truth is…I loved you first, even before I met Teruo-kun. But I couldn't bring myself to say anything."

That was certainly unexpected.

"Because you were afraid I'd reject you?"

"Maybe. Or maybe because I was afraid you might feel sorry for me and say yes. Either way, I'd just be a nuisance in the way of your happiness. I'd be taking away your chance at a normal life. To get married. To have kids. You said you'd never be able to give me the things Teruo-kun could, when it's _me_ , Netto-kun. It's me who could never be able to give you anything!"

His heart sped up.

"I never dreamed we could actually be together. You were always so popular."

"With Meiru-chan." Netto finally got the full picture.

" _And_ Jasmine-chan _and_ Princess Pride!"

Netto swallowed and Rockman drooped ignominiously.

"Yeah, I'm clueless! You've made your point! Man, you and Torakichi both!"

"Torakichi?"

Obviously, Tohru wasn't particularly ecstatic to learn Netto briefly dated, in his words, "Aragoma Torakichi, the son of renowned shogi pro Aragoma Saikichi."

"Tohru-kun, you're jealous?"

"Darn straight."

"More like darn gay!" Giggling at Tohru's self-censorship, he attacked. "Tickle fight!"

"S-stop, Netto-kun! I give! I give!"

The levity helped.

"Compromise? You complete your studies abroad, and I promise you I'll phone every day and wait for you, as long as necessary."

"That, and no more tickling!"

This could work. They would make it work.

"Do me a favour?" He tousled his _boyfriend's_ hair.

"Mm."

"Play me a song."

Taken aback by the request, Tohru saw Netto's authentic engrossment and unpacked his violin. Reposing his chin on the chinrest, he drew the bow over the strings, performing the musical portion of the Tohru Special.

A precipitous, sterling meteor shower served poetic accompaniment.

This'd be their song.

Reviving Andou Romeda's advice, Netto made a new wish on a shooting star, captivated by the melody. " _Namunamunamu_ ," he muttered the orison under breath.

"What did you wish for?"

"Che, if I told you, it wouldn't come true!"

"Please?"

"Fine! I wished to eat ripe mango!"

"I know you're kidding. Problem is, when it comes to you, that wouldn't be surprising."

Netto crawled inside and under a blanket. "Do you need your earplugs?"

"Why?"

"I haven't outgrown snoring!"

Tohru smiled, as did Raito from the closet. There wasn't a nook in this house the displaced moppet hadn't explored. His parents often narrated the saga of how their love began, and Raito was experiencing firsthand the culmination of those cherished tales.

Raito wished to tell them his own riveting tale in person.

…

After the younger iterations of his parents fell asleep, Raito exited the closet and slid down a gutter to rejoin Kosuke, who idled with a crucial update and his recently recovered bike.

Sensei had a plan to send him forward in time!

They hurried to Akihara University, Kosuke spelling out the procedure to the best of his comprehension en route and relaying the message Raito's fathers left him.

At the lab, Kosuke plopped his hat onto Raito's head. "Here! Take my lucky cap as a keepsake! Ring older me up when you get to the future!"

Nodding, Raito entered the cubicle Makoto had set up.

"Oneechan, will this really work?"

"No worries, Raito-kun," Makoto spoke into the mic. "I've reviewed your Synchro Rate. Your close friendship with Trill and his Synchronizer status should be enough to sustain a cohesive hybrid."

 _Humph! Whose offspring is he? They can totally do it!_ She grinned remembering her assistant's future self's positivity.

"Trill wanna Cross Fuse NOW!" the impudent Navi groused.

Makoto checked her monitor. Dr. Wily transmitted a preliminary email through the Past Tunnel, indicating he and Netto were prepped.

"Standby, Raito-kun. Activating Dimensional Area!"

Rainbow lights boxed Raito in the chamber. Concentrating on Papa's stories of Barrel-san's heroism calmed the banging in his chest.

 _Be brave._

"Synchro Chip, slot-in! Cross Fusion!"

Electricity crackled.

A bumblebee breastplate, black fingerless gauntlets, white gaiters, and black boots jigsawed over Raito's body. Trill's plain, round Navi mark fitted into Raito's waist, filling in the uncovered spaces with a white lapel and black, white, and gold accents. Kosuke's cap reformatted into a translucent belled beanie, a ruff of Raito's hair curving out the bottom.

Kosuke banzaied.

"Yippee!" Trill's tenor pierced his operator's ear. "We Cross Fused, Raito!"

Raito admired the results.

"Initiating space-time inversion sequence."

Wily networked his miniaturized Spectrum device under the firebombed Copyroid factory on Onibi Island with the designated beacon – the Fossa Ambience generator – at the Ministry of Science.

Four panes itemizing Raito's vitals magnified, one gauge or graph per quadrant of the Dimensional Area. Within this square, R-Trill's frame dimmed till it simulated the etchings on a circuit board.

Raito and Trill screamed. The dematerialization phenomenon migrated up and down their combined form, erasing and recreating the underlying code.

Like steering a rocket ship in a horizontally scrolling shoot 'em up video game, Makoto and Wily furiously inputted revised directives, guiding R-Trill's data toward the correct locus in history.

Then, R-Trill's particles evaporated.

Makoto shakily lifted off the keys.

"Are they –?" Kosuke exclaimed.

"According to my analyses…"

Farther down the timestream, the Spectrum equipment and interdimensional portal shorted, sooty brume spewing from the latter's threshold.

The SciLab scientists ducked behind their computers. Meijin cranked a ventilation fan to maximum to expunge the smog.

In the center of the kaput machinery waved Raito, clinging to his PET and wearing Kosuke's esteemed lid.

Netto and Tohru choked up, unable to withhold their tears.

"RAITO!"

"RAICCHI!"

It was blatantly clear to Raito now: _He_ was the realization of his parents' dream! _He_ was Netto's wish! The son they'd prayed for. The crowning union of their love.

He leapt into their arms amid raucous applause.

Reunited at last.

 _Otosan. Papa. I'm home._

AND THE ADVENTURE CONTINUES…


End file.
